Nature has made us passive, and to suffer is our lot. While we are in the flesh every man has his chain and his clog; only it is looser and lighter to one man than to another, and he is more at ease who takes it up and carries it than he who drags it.

Every one has time if he likes. Business runs after nobody: people cling to it of their own free will and think that to be busy is a proof of happiness.

No man is born wise; but wisdom and virtue require a tutor; though we can easily learn to be vicious without a master.

Make haste to live, and consider each day a life.

A benefit consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.

The road by precepts is tedious, by example, short and efficacious.

There is nothing more despicable than an old man who has no other proof than his age to offer of his having lived long in the world.