“Many exceedingly rich men are unhappy, but many middling circumstances are fortunate.”

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.

Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.

The worst part a man can suffer is to have insight into much and power over nothing.

If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.

My men have become women, but the women men.

The worst pain a man can have is to know much and be impotent to act.

We have two useless gods who never leave our island, but like to dwell in it constantly, Poverty and Helplessness.

Unfortunately, the more complex the system, the greater the room for error.

You are indebted to life until you help some less fortunate person, just as you were helped.

If you are successful, it is because somewhere, sometime, someone gave you a life or an idea that started you in the right direction. Remember also that you are indebted to life until you help some less fortunate person, just as you were helped.

Every time you finish a book, you have a terrible feeling that there’s just never going to be another one. But fortunately, so far, the next one has always shown up.

I’m really fortunate. I’m really happy, and I’m really really lucky to be where I am.

Unfortunately, the reality was that, for political reasons or whatever, there was a need to enforce antidiscrimination laws, or at least there was a perceived need to do that.

I actually think that I have been fortunate to have had misfortune, because the response, in responding to the misfortune, you develop in your own life, you develop sort of the tools you need to continue on, or to do better.

Fortunately for a quarterback, you can play for a long time because you don’t get hit very often.