Better it were not to live than to live a coward.

It is plain there is not in nature a point of stability to be found; everything either ascends or declines; when wars are ended abroad, sedition begins at home; and when men are freed from fighting for necessity, they quarrel through ambition.

Above all things, be not made an ass to carry the burdens of other men if any friend desire thee to be his surety, give him a part of what thou has to spare if he presses thee further, he is not thy friend at all.

The gain of lying is nothing else but not to be trusted of any, nor to be believed when we say the truth.

I can't write a book commensurate with Shakespeare, but I can write a book by me.

In a letter to a friend the thought is often unimportant, and the feeling, if it be only a desire to entertain him, every thing.

To live thy better, let thy worst thoughts die.