“Call no man happy before he dies.”

Adversity has the effect of drawing out strength and qualities of a man that would have laid dormant in its absence.

Where even a falsehood must be told, let it be told.

I am bound to tell what I am told, but not in every case to believe it.

Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.

Whatever comes from God is impossible for a man to turn back.

The man of affluence is not in fact more happy than the possessor of a bare competency, unless, in addition to his wealth, the end of his life be fortunate. We often see misery dwelling in the midst of splendour, whilst real happiness is found in humbler stations.

As the old saw says well: every end does not appear together with its beginning. It’s impossible for someone who is human to have all good things together, just as there is no single country able to provide all good things for itself.

Chances rule men and not men chances.

How can a monarchy be a suitable thing, which allows a man to do as he pleases with none to hold him to account. And even if you were to take the best man on earth, and put him into a monarchy, you put outside him the thoughts that usually guide him.

All men’s gains are the fruit of venturing.

Force has no place where there is need of skill.

When life is so burdensome death has become a sought after refuge.

Illness strikes men when they are exposed to change.

There is nothing more foolish, nothing more given to outrage than a useless mob.

The Lacedaemonians fought a memorable battle; they made it quite clear that they were the experts, and that they were fighting against amateurs.

We are less convinced by what we hear than by what we see.

Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.

Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.

Never abandon life. There is a way out of everything except death.

Everyone may be called “comrade,” but some comrades have the power of life and death over other comrades.

People living deeply have no fear of death.

Death comes for us all in the end.

Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.

Better was it to go unknown and leave behind you an arch, then to burn like a meteor and leave no dust.