Although a man has so well purged his mind that nothing can trouble or deceive him any more, yet he reached his present innocence through sin.

A great, a good, and a right mind is a kind of divinity lodged in flesh, and may be the blessing of a slave as well as of a prince: it came from heaven, and to heaven it must return; and it is a kind of heavenly felicity, which a pure and virtuous mind enjoys, in some degree, even upon earth.

It is the practice of the multitude to bark at eminent men, as little dogs do at strangers.

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

We must take care to live not merely a long life, but a full one; for living a long life requires only good fortune, but living a full life requires character. Long is the life that is fully lived; it is fulfilled only when the mind supplies its own good qualities and empowers itself from within.

Remember that pain has this most excellent quality. If prolonged it cannot be severe, and if severe it cannot be prolonged.

Plato once wanted to punish one of his slaves and asked his nephew to do the actual whipping for he himself did not own his anger.