Our sins are more easily remembered than our good deeds.
Men should strive to think much and know little.
Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul.
Do not trust all men, but trust men of worth; the former course is silly, the latter a mark of prudence.
Everything existing in the universe is the fruit of chance and necessity.
Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.
If thou suffer injustice, console thyself; the true unhappiness is in doing it.
Accept nothing pleasant unless it is beneficial.
By desiring little, a poor man makes himself rich.
It is better to destroy one’s own errors than those of others.
Many much-learned men have no intelligence.
Raising children is an uncertain thing; success is reached only after a life of battle and worry.
Everywhere man blames nature and fate yet his fate is mostly but the echo of his character and passion, his mistakes and his weaknesses.
The wrongdoer is more unfortunate than the man wronged.
Good means not merely not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.
Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains.
To a wise and good man the whole earth is his fatherland.
No power and no treasure can outweigh the extension of our knowledge.
I would rather discover one true cause than gain the kingdom of Persia.
If your desires are not great, a little will seem much to you; for small appetite makes poverty equivalent to wealth.
Now as of old the gods give men all good things, excepting only those that are baneful and injurious and useless. These, now as of old, are not gifts of the gods: men stumble into them themselves because of their own blindness and folly.
One man means as much to me as a multitude, and a multitude only as much as one man.
It is godlike ever to think on something beautiful and on something new.
One will seem to promote virtue better by using encouragement and persuasion of speech than law and necessity. For it is likely that he who is held back from wrongdoing by law will err in secret but that he who is urged to what he should by persuasion will do nothing wrong either in secret or openly. Therefore he who acts rightly from understanding and knowledge proves to be at the same time courageous and right-minded.
It is greed to do all the talking but not to want to listen at all.
Men achieve cheerfulness by moderation in pleasure and by proportion in their life excess and deficiency are apt to fluctuate and cause great changes in the soul. And souls which change over great intervals are neither stable nor cheerful. So one should set one’s mind on what is possible and be content with what one has taking little account of those who are admired and envied and not dwelling on them in thought but one should consider the lives of those who are in distress thinking of their grievous sufferings so that what one has and possesses will seem great and enviable and one will cease to suffer in one’s soul through the desire for more.
No one regards the things before his feet, But views with care the regions of the sky.
Hope of ill gain is the beginning of loss.
