Every bad precedent originated as a justifiable measure.

The renown which riches or beauty confer is fleeting and frail mental excellence is a splendid and lasting possession.

Everything destroyed is either resolved into the elements from which it came, or else vanishes into not-being. If things are resolved into the elements from which they came, then there will be others: else how did they come into being at all?

Each man the architect of his own fate.

While the body is young and fine, the soul blunders, but as the body grows old it attains its highest power. Again, every good soul uses mind; but no body can produce mind: for how should that which is without mind produce mind? Again, while the soul uses the body as an instrument, it is not in it; just as the engineer is not in his engines (although many engines move without being touched by any one).

Among intellectual pursuits, one of the most useful is the recording of past events.

No mortal man has ever served at the same time his passions and his best interests.