Deem no man happy until he passes the end of his life without suffering grief.
— Sophocles
Profit is sweet, even if it comes from deception.
Fortune raises up and fortune brings low both the man who fares well and the one who fares badly; and there is no prophet of the future for mortal men.
Money is the worst currency that ever grew among mankind. This sacks cities, this drives men from their homes, this teaches and corrupts the worthiest minds to turn base deeds.
It's impossible to speak what it is not noble to do.
Hide nothing, for time, which sees all and hears all, exposes all.
For shameful deeds are taught by shameful deeds.
Whoever gets up and comes to grips with Love like a boxer is a fool.
No speech can stain what is noble by nature.
What house, bloated with luxury, ever became prosperous without a woman's excellence?
Isn't it the sweetest mockery to mock our enemies?
There is nothing more hateful than bad advice.
If my body is enslaved, still my mind is free.
Better not to exist than live basely.
Wise thinkers prevail everywhere.
I see that all of us who live are nothing but images or insubstantial shadow.
It is best to live however one can be.
Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life.
Things gained through unjust fraud are never secure.
A state is not a state if it belongs to one man.
You should not consider a man's age but his acts.
But whoever gives birth to useless children, what would you say of him except that he has bred sorrows for himself, and furnishes laughter for his enemies.
Man is not constituted to take pleasure in the same things always.
All is disgust when a man leaves his own nature and does what is unfit.
It is a base thing for a man among the people not to obey those in command. Never in a state can the laws be well administered when fear does not stand firm.
No one who errs unwillingly is evil.
No treaty is ever an impediment to a cheat.
A soul that is kind and intends justice discovers more than any sophist.
For those whose wit becomes the mother of villainy, those it educates to be evil in all things.
When trouble ends even troubles please.
Not even Ares battles against necessity.
God's dice always have a lucky roll.
Hush! Check those words. Do not cure ill with ill and make your pain still heavier than it is.
War never takes a wicked man by chance, the good man always.
Foolishness is indeed the sister of wickedness.
Much speech is one thing, well-timed speech is another.
To live without evil belongs only to the gods.
For death is not the worst, but when one wants to die and is not able even to have that.
You win the victory when you yield to friends.
It was my care to make my life illustrious not by words more than by deeds.
Whoever thinks his friend more important than his country, I rate him nowhere.
Old age and the passage of time teach all things.
Not knowing anything is the sweetest life.
It's a terrible thing to speak well and be wrong.
There is a time when even justice brings harm.
Time alone reveals the just man; but you might discern a bad man in a single day.
Not even old age knows how to love death.
No man loves the bearer of bad tidings.
Evil gains work their punishment.
It is the task of a good man to help those in misfortune.
