No action will be considered blameless, unless the will was so, for by the will the act was dictated.

Everyone rushes his life on, and suffers from a yearning for the future and a boredom with the present. But that man who devotes every hour to his own needs, who plans every day as if it were his last, neither longs for nor fears tomorrow.

Do you desire not to be angry? Be not inquisitive. He who inquires what is said of him only works out his own misery.

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.

When God has once begun to throw down the prosperous, He overthrows them altogether: such is the end of the mighty.

If a man does not know to what port he is steering, no wind is favorable to him. Ignoranti quem portum petat, nullus suus ventus est.

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.