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

Nothing is more disgraceful than that an old man should have nothing to show to prove that he has lived long, except his years.

I have withdrawn not only from men, but from affairs, especially my own affairs; I am working for later generations, writing down some ideas that may be of assistance to them.

A man's as miserable as he thinks he is.

It was the saying of a great man, that if we could trace our descents, we should find all slaves to come from princes, and all princes from slaves; and fortune has turned all things topsy-turvy in a long series of revolutions; beside, for a man to spend his life in pursuit of a title, that serves only when he dies to furnish out an epitaph, is below a wise man's business.

Virtue depends partly upon training and partly upon practice; you must learn first, and then strengthen your learning by actions.

Democracy is more cruel than wars or tyrants.