To keep oneself safe does not mean to bury oneself.
— Lucius Annaeus Seneca
The approach of liberty makes even an old man brave.
He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.
If you would judge, understand.
The display of grief makes more demands than grief itself. How few men are sad in their own company.
There is as much greatness of mind in acknowledging a good turn, as in doing it.
Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.
Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing.
A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature.
A punishment to some, to some a gift, and to many a favor.
He has committed the crime who profits by it.
The deferring of anger is the best antidote to anger.
Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes.
Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war.
Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.
True praise comes often even to the lowly; false praise only to the strong.
Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue.
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.
A well governed appetite is the greater part of liberty.
It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.
If you judge, investigate.
Nothing becomes so offensive so quickly as grief. When fresh it finds someone to console it, but when it becomes chronic, it is ridiculed, and rightly.
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.
A person's fears are lighter when the danger is at hand.
Life is warfare.
Do everything as in the eye of another.
Constant exposure to dangers will breed contempt for them.
Crime when it succeeds is called virtue.
Those who boast of their descent, brag on what they owe to others.
The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.
A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party; there is no battle unless there be two.
As long as you live, keep learning how to live.
Night brings our troubles to the light, rather than banishes them.
It is quality rather than quantity that matters.
Modesty forbids what the law does not.
That is never too often repeated, which is never sufficiently learned.
May be is very well, but Must is the master. It is my duty to show justice without recompense.
Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.
For greed all nature is too little.
Nothing is void of God, his work is everywhere his full of himself.
So live with men as if God saw you and speak to God, as if men heard you.
I will govern my life and thoughts as if the whole world were to see the one and read the other, for what does it signify to make anything a secret to my neighbor, when to God, who is the searcher of our hearts, all our privacies are open?
Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all.
One crime has to be concealed by another.
Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands.
The mind that is anxious about the future is miserable.
No untroubled day has ever dawned for me.
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.
We often want one thing and pray for another, not telling the truth even to the gods.
Life's like a play: it's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.
