“Do as much as possible, and talk of yourself as little as possible.”

Each man the architect of his own fate.

Small communities grow great through harmony, great ones fall to pieces through discord.

Fame is the shadow of passion standing in the light.

Before you act consider; when you have considered, tis fully time to act.

Everything destroyed is either resolved into the elements from which it came, or else vanishes into not-being. If things are resolved into the elements from which they came, then there will be others: else how did they come into being at all?

Fortune rules in all things, and advances and depresses things more out of her own will than right and justice.

Prosperity tries the souls even of the wise.

All those who offer an opinion on any doubtful point should first clear their minds of every sentiment of dislike, friendship, anger or pity.

The higher your station, the less your liberty.

The glory of riches and of beauty is frail and transitory; virtue remains bright and eternal.

Sovereignty is easily preserved by the very arts by which it was originally created. When, however, energy has given place to indifference, and temperance and justice to passion and arrogance, then as the morals change so changes fortune.

The fame which is based on wealth or beauty is a frail and fleeting thing; but virtue shines for ages with undiminished lustre.

In my own case, who have spent my whole life in the practice of virtue, right conduct from habitual has become natural.

All persons who are enthusiastic that they should transcend the other animals ought to strive with the utmost effort not to pass through a life of silence, like cattle, which nature has fashioned to be prone and obedient to their stomachs.

Greedy for the property of others, extravagant with his own

Everything rises but to fall, and increases but to decay.

There is a proud modesty in merit.

There’s a proud modesty in merit; averse from asking, and resolved to pay ten times the gifts it asks.

Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.

The awareness of our own strength makes us modest.

Perdomita Britannia et statim omissa. Britain was conquered and immediately lost.

The approbation of others is a stimulus of which one must sometimes be wary. The feeling of one’s own strength makes one modest.

Legions and fleets are not such sure bulwarks of imperial power as a numerous family

When a woman has lost her chastity she will shrink from nothing.