Happy he whoe'er, content with the common lot, with safe breeze hugs the shore, and, fearing to trust his skiff to the wider sea, with unambitious oar keeps close to the land.

There is nothing the wise man does reluctantly.

A man can refrain from wanting what he has not and cheerfully make the best of a bird in the hand.

No one can long hide behind a mask; the pretense soon lapses into the true character.

We ought not to confine ourselves either to writing or to reading; the one, continuous writing, will cast a gloom over our strength, and exhaust it; the other will make our strength flabby and watery. It is better to have recourse to them alternately, and to blend one with the other, so that the fruits of one's reading may be reduced to concrete form by the pen.

It is expedient for the victor to wish for peace restored; for the vanquished it is necessary.

For greed, all nature is too little.