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.

You are your choices.

The important thing about a problem is not its solution, but the strength we gain in finding the solution

The wise man will always reflect concerning the quality not the quantity of life.

I am ashamed of my master and not of my servitude.

Most men ebb and flow in wretchedness between the fear of death and the hardship of life; they are unwilling to live, and yet they do not know how to die.

No man esteems anything that comes to him by chance; but when it is governed by reason, it brings credit both to the giver and receiver; whereas those favors are in some sort scandalous that make a man ashamed of his patron.