Deliberate before you begin; but, having carefully done so, execute with vigour.

Everything rises but to fall, and increases but to decay.

If the transmigration of a soul takes place into a rational being, it simply becomes the soul of that body. But if the soul migrates into a brute beast, it follows the body outside, as a guardian spirit follows a man. For there could never be a rational soul in an irrational being.

It is better to use fair means and fail, than foul and conquer.

Small endeavours obtain strength by unity of action: the most powerful are broken down by discord.

For men who had easily endured hardship, danger and difficult uncertainty, leisure and riches, though in some ways desirable, proved burdensome and a source of grief.

Of the bodies in the cosmos, some imitate mind and move in orbits; some imitate soul and move in a straight line, fire and air upward, earth and water downward.