When some state or other offered Alexander a part of its territory and half of all its property he told them that 'he hadn't come to Asia with the intention of accepting whatever they cared to give him, but of letting them keep whatever he chose to leave them.' Philosophy, likewise, tells all other occupations: 'It's not my intention to accept whatever time is leftover from you; you shall have, instead, what I reject.' Give your whole mind to her.

... frugality makes a poor man rich.

Dignity increases more easily than it begins.

Nothing is more hateful to wisdom than to much cunning.

Men trust rather to their eyes than to their ears; the effect of precepts is therefore slow and tedious, whilst that of examples is summary and effectual.

If sensuality were happiness, beasts were happier than men; but human felicity is lodged in the soul, not in the flesh.

There is nothing wrong with changing a plan when the situation has changed.