“All persons who are enthusiastic that they should transcend the other animals ought to strive with the utmost effort not to pass through a life of silence, like cattle, which nature has fashioned to be prone and obedient to their stomachs.”

Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master.

Necessity makes even the timid brave.

In battle it is the cowards who run the most risk; bravery is a rampart of defense.

The renown which riches or beauty confer is fleeting and frail mental excellence is a splendid and lasting possession.

Poor Britons, there is some good in them after all – they produced an oyster.

Of the cosmic Gods some make the world be, others animate it, others harmonize it, consisting as it does of different elements; the fourth class keep it when harmonized.

It is a law of human nature that in victory even the coward may boast of his prowess, while defeat injures the reputation even of the brave.

We employ the mind to rule, the body to serve.

To desire the same things and to reject the same things, constitutes true friendship.

Of the bodies in the cosmos, some imitate mind and move in orbits; some imitate soul and move in a straight line, fire and air upward, earth and water downward.

They envy the distinction I have won; let them therefore, envy my toils, my honesty, and the methods by which I gained it.

In my opinion, he only may be truly said to live and enjoy his being who is engaged in some laudable pursuit, and acquires a name by some illustrious action, or useful art.

The very life which we enjoy is short.

For harmony makes small states great, while discord undermines the mightiest empires.

A good man prefers to suffer rather than overcome injustice with evil.

The glory of ancestors sheds a light around posterity; it allows neither good nor bad qualities to remain in obscurity.

We will be humble as we are obedient, and as obedient as we are humble.

The way we obey teaches us much about who we really trust.

The virtue of obedience makes the will supple… It inspires the courage with which to fulfill the most difficult tasks.

When obedience to God contradicts what I think will give me pleasure, let me ask myself if I love Him.

Obedience is a penance of reason, and, on that account, a sacrifice more acceptable than all corporal penances and mortifications.

God is God. Because he is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what he is up to.

Choices will continually be necessary and — let us not forget — possible. Obedience to God is always possible. It is a deadly error to fall into the notion that when feelings are extremely strong we can do nothing but act on them.

God prefers your health, and your obedience, to your penance.