The voice of flattery affects us after it has ceased, just as after a concert men find some agreeable air ringing in their ears to the exclusion of all serious business.

Dead, we become the lumber of the world, And to that mass of matter shall be swept Where things destroyed with things unborn are kept.

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

I was shipwrecked before I got aboard.

It's the admirer and the watcher who provoke us to all the inanities we commit.

My advice is really this: what we hear the philosophers saying and what we find in their writings should be applied in our pursuit of the happy life. We should hunt out the helpful pieces of teaching and the spirited and noble-minded sayings which are capable of immediate practical application-not far far-fetched or archaic expressions or extravagant metaphors and figures of speech-and learn them so well that words become works.

What is required is not a lot words, but effectual ones.