“Virtue is the truest nobility.”

Whoever is ignorant is vulgar.

Never look for birds of this year in the nests of the last.

Seek for good, but expect evil.

Make yourself honey and the flies will devour you.

The worst reconciliation is better than the best divorce.

I drink when I have occasion, and sometimes when I have no occasion.

Where envy reigns virtue can’t exist, and generosity doesn’t go with meanness.

Good actions ennoble us, and we are the sons of our deeds.

Hunger is the best sauce in the world.

Think before thou speakest.

Cunning cheats itself wholly, and other people partially.

Be brief, for no talk can please when too long. Being prepared is half the victory.

Other men’s pains are easily borne.

Never stand begging for that which you have the power to earn.

Beware, gentle knight – the greatest monster of them all is reason.

Lovers are commonly industrious to make themselves uneasy.

I often think that men don’t understand what is noble and what is ignorant, though they always talk about it.

Noblest minds are easiest bent.

Freedom is one of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit.

Thus we have given to man a pedigree of prodigious length, but not, it may be said, of noble quality.

The noblest motive is the public good.

Of all ruins, that of a noble mind is the most deplorable.

Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.

Devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality; there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking.