Of war men ask the outcome, not the cause.

We should conduct ourselves not as if we ought to live for the body, but as if we could not live without it.

Refuse to let the thought of death bother you: nothing is grim when we have escaped that fear.

Do not ask for what you will wish you had not got.

It is equally a fault to believe all men or to believe none.

Straightforwardness and simplicity are in keeping with goodness. The things that are essential are acquired with little bother; it is the luxuries that call for toil and effort. To want simply what is enough nowadays suggests to people primitiveness and squalor.

The foremost art of Kings is the power to endure hatred.