“If you are wise, be wise; keep what goods the gods provide you.”

In everything the middle course is the best; everything in excess brings trouble.

Poverty is a thorough instructress in all the arts.

It is sheer folly to take unwilling hounds to the chase.

I have taken a wife, I have sold my sovereignty for a dowry.

The evil that we know is best.

Give assistance, and receive thanks lighter than a feather: injure a man, and his wrath will be like lead.

Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend.

It is a great plague to be too handsome a man.

If anything is spoken in jest, it is not fair to turn it to earnest.

And so it happens oft in many instances; more good is done without our knowledge than by us intended.

You will stir up the hornets.

He gains wisdom in a happy way, who gains it by another’s experience.

There are games in which it is better to lose than win.

I am myself my own commander.

The man who would be fully employed should procure a ship or a woman, for no two things produce more trouble.

If you do anything well, gratitude is lighter than a feather; if you give offense in anything, people’s wrath is as heavy as lead.