Peace is never so complete that we may not have something to suffer. . . . Since it is impossible to please all of [those you serve], they offer you the occasion for practices which increase your merit in the measure that you make them meritorious by your patience.

All beginnings are somewhat strange; but we must have patience, and little by little, we shall find things, which at first were obscure, becoming clearer.

The vine-stock bears fruit as long as it is attached to its stem; apart from that, no.

Just as stinginess is blameworthy, so is facility in paying more for things than they are worth...

Make it a practice to judge persons and things in the most favorable light at all times and under all circumstances.

. . . [A]s a rule, the most learned persons do not produce the greatest results. We see that only too often.

Experience teaches that what is feasible at the beginning is sometimes harmful as things go on, or subject to troublesome inconveniences