“When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank.”

Freedom is participation in power.

It is a great thing to know your vices.

For walk where we will, we tread upon some story.

Nothing stands out so conspicuously, or remains so firmly fixed in the memory, as something which you have blundered.

Books: our unfailing companions.

To be rather than to seem.

Endless money forms the sinews of war.

Love is the attempt to form a friendship inspired by beauty.

Cultivation of the mind is as necessary as food to the body.

The enemy is within the gates; it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend.

The causes of events are ever more interesting than the events themselves.

In all matters, before beginning, a diligent preparation should be made.

To make a mistake is only human; to persist in a mistake is idiotic.

The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.

We are bound by the law, so that we may be free.

Instead let Virtue herself, by her own unaided allurements, summon you to a glory that is genuine and real.

Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.

Suffering brings experience.

Difficulties in your life do not come to destroy you, but to help you realise your hidden potential and power, let difficulties know that you too are difficult.

Nobody gets to tell your story.

Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them.

I believe things cannot make themselves impossible.

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

I gave them hope, and so turned away their eyes from death.