One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.

Success is not greedy, as people think, but insignificant. That is why it satisfies nobody.

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.

It is quality rather than quantity that matters.

All art is but imitation of nature.

To be able to endure odium is the first art to be learned by those who aspire to power.

The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.

A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.

We can be thankful to a friend for a few acres, or a little money; and yet for the freedom and command of the whole earth, and for the great benefits of our being, our life, health, and reason, we look upon ourselves as under no obligation.

Shall I tell you what the real evil is? To cringe to the things that are called evils, to surrender to them our freedom, in defiance of which we ought to face any suffering.

A person's fears are lighter when the danger is at hand.

There is none made so great, but he may both need the help and service, and stand in fear of the power and unkindness, even of the meanest of mortals.

True happiness is... to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.

Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself.

Where fear is, happiness is not.

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

Consult your friend on all things, especially on those which respect yourself. His counsel may then be useful where your own self-love might impair your judgment.

Love in its essence is spiritual fire.

If you wished to be loved, love.

The display of grief makes more demands than grief itself. How few men are sad in their own company.

Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all.

Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other; yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely; for science is but one.

The mind that is anxious about the future is miserable.

It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.

The wish for healing has always been half of health.

Health is the soul that animates all the enjoyments of life, which fade and are tasteless without it.

It is another's fault if he be ungrateful, but it is mine if I do not give. To find one thankful man, I will oblige a great many that are not so.

The first step in a person's salvation is knowledge of their sin.

It makes a great deal of difference whether one wills not to sin or has not the knowledge to sin.

Everywhere is nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends.

I don't trust liberals, I trust conservatives.

No man was ever wise by chance.

Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life - in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color.

A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature.

For greed all nature is too little.

I never come back home with the same moral character I went out with; something or other becomes unsettled where I had achieved internal peace; some one or other of the things I had put to flight reappears on the scene.

Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.

He who has great power should use it lightly.

Every reign must submit to a greater reign.

Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war.

Ignorant people see life as either existence or non-existence, but wise men see it beyond both existence and non-existence to something that transcends them both; this is an observation of the Middle Way.

For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them.

As long as you live, keep learning how to live.

A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a mad patient, nor does he take it ill to be railed at by a man in fever. Just so should a wise man treat all mankind, as a physician does his patient, and look upon them only as sick and extravagant.

The greatest remedy for anger is delay.

Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.

The deferring of anger is the best antidote to anger.

A large part of mankind is angry not with the sins, but with the sinners.

Anger is like those ruins which smash themselves on what they fall.