“Music, to create harmony, must investigate discord.”

Silence at the proper season is wisdom and better than any speech.

Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.

It does not follow, that because a particular work of art succeeds in charming us, its creator also deserves our admiration.

I would rather excel in the knowledge of what is excellent than the extent of my power or possessions.

Of all the disorders in the soul, envy is the only one no one confesses to.

I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.

It’s a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man’s oration, it is a very easy matter, but to produce a better in its place is a work extremely troublesome.

It is a true proverb, that if you live with a lame man, you will learn to limp.

The whole like of a man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it.

Adversity is the only balance to weigh friends.

No beast is more savage than man when possessed with power answerable to his rage.

But a man cannot by writing a bill of divorce to his vice get rid of all trouble at once, and enjoy tranquillity by living apart.

An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.

The superstitious man wishes he did not believe in gods, as the atheist does not, but fears to disbelieve in them.

The poor go to war, to fight and die for the delights, riches, and superfluities of others.

In a certain faraway land the cold is so intense that words freeze as soon as they are uttered, and after some time then thaw and become audible so that words spoken in winter go unheard until the next summer.