The evil which assails us is not in the localities we inhabit but in ourselves. We lack strength to endure the least task, being incapable of suffering pain, powerless to enjoy pleasure, impatient with everything. How many invoke death when, after having tried every sort of change, they find themselves reverting to the same sensations, unable to discover any new experience.

The wise man lacked nothing but needed a great number of things, whereas the fool, on the other hand, needs nothing (for he does not know how to use anything) but lacks everything.

Anger is like those ruins which smash themselves on what they fall.

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

Fire tests gold, suffering tests brave men.

Human society is like an arch, kept from falling by the mutual pressure of its parts

Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment.