“How wealthy the gods would be if we remembered the promises we made when we were in danger.”

Religious contention is the devil’s harvest.

We become innocent when we are unfortunate.

The argument of the strongest is always the best.

A cheerful mind is a vigorous mind.

Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire.

Blind fortune pursues inconsiderate rashness.

Often we find our own destiny on the same roads that we have been avoiding.

The worst time is always the present.

We are never content with our lot.

Everyone calls himself a friend, but only a fool relies on it; nothing is commoner than the name, nothing rarer than the thing.

Example is a dangerous lure: where the wasp got through the gnat sticks fast.

You’ve tried to reform what will not learn. Shut doors on traits that you wish were dead; They will open a window and return.

Gentleness succeeds better than violence.

He knows the universe and does not know himself.

Every editor of newspapers pays tribute to the devil.

By the work one knows the workman.

Sometimes I think that a parody of democracy could be more dangerous than a blatant dictatorship, because that gives people an opportunity to avoid doing anything about it.

To give a name to a thing is as gratifying as giving a name to an island, but it is also dangerous: the danger consists in one’s becoming convinced that all is taken care of and that once named, the phenomenon has also been explained.

More dangerous are…the functionaries ready to believe and act without asking questions.

People only change when it becomes too dangerous to stay the way they are.

Living safely is dangerous.

Learning carries within itself certain dangers because out of necessity one has to learn from one’s enemies.

Dangerous acts can be done safely in a community which thinks and feels rightly, which would be the way to hell if they were executed by those who think and feel wrongly.

A sound banker, alas, is not one who foresees danger and avoids it, but one who, when he is ruined, is ruined in a conventional way along with his fellows, so that no one can really blame him.