Study rather to fill your mind than your coffers; knowing that gold and silver were originally mingled with dirt, until avarice or ambition parted them.

He is not guilty who is not guilty of his own free will.

There are no greater wretches in the world than many of those whom people in general take to be happy.

Men trust rather to their eyes than to their ears; the effect of precepts is therefore slow and tedious, whilst that of examples is summary and effectual.

Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness it is to be expecting evil before it comes.

To make a commencement requires a mental effort.

There is about wisdom a nobility and magnificence in the fact that she doesn't just fall to a person's lot, that each man owes her to his own efforts, that one doesn't go to anyone other than oneself to find her.