The greatest power of ruling consists in the exercise of self-control.

The rust of the mind is the destruction of genius.

To be enslaved to oneself is the heaviest of all servitudes.-

To be able to endure odium is the first art to be learned by those who aspire to power.

Some there are that torment themselves afresh with the memory of what is past; others, again, afflict themselves with the apprehension of evils to come; and very ridiculously both - for the one does not now concern us, and the other not yet ... One should count each day as a separate life.

Accustom yourself to that which you bear ill, and you will bear it well.

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