Xxxii, I. (4)

Moderation, as it is a short and agreeable way, brings much delight and little trouble.

Fortify yourself with moderation; for this is an impregnable fortress.

Prefer nothing to truth, not even the choicest friendship, since this borders on those passions by which justice is both confounded and darkened.

Truth is an immortal and an eternal thing. It bestows not a beauty which time will wither, nor a courage which may quail before a human tribunal; but only things just and lawful, from which it divides and destroys all that is unjust.

We should have neither a blunt sword nor a pointless speech.

Nature has given man one tongue, but two ears, that we may hear twice as much as we speak.

Nothing is in reality either pleasant or unpleasant by nature; but all things become such through habit.

Choose the best life; for habit will make it pleasant.

Choose rather to leave your children well instructed than rich. For the hopes of the wise are better than the riches of the ignorant.

A daughter is to a father a possession which is not his own.

The same person advised to bequeath modesty to children, rather than gold.

The reproof of a father is an agreeable medicine; for the profit is greater than the pain.

He who is fortunate in a son-in-law, finds a son; he who is unfortunate in one, loses likewise a daughter.

The worth of instruction, like that of gold, passes current in every place.

He who cultivates wisdom cultivates the knowledge of God.

There is no creature so beautiful as a man adorned by instruction.

We ought to flee the friendship of the wicked, and the enmity of the good.

Misfortunes test friends, and detect enemies.

We ought to do well by our friends, when they are present; and speak well of them, when they are absent.

Let him not think himself loved by any, who loves none.

We ought to choose, both for a physician and for a friend, not the most agreeable, but the most useful.

If you would lead a life without sorrow, regard things which will happen, as if they had already happened.

Be exempt from grief; not like irrational creatures, from insensibility, nor from inconsiderateness, like fools; but like a man of virtue, making reason the remedy for grief.

They whose minds are the least grieved by calamities, and who best meet them in action, are the greatest both in public and in private life.

They who are well instructed, like those who are exercised in the Palæstra, if they happen to fall quickly and dexterously rise again from misfortunes.

We ought to call in reason, like a good physician, to our assistance in misfortune.

Too much intoxication from good fortune, as from drinking, makes a fool more senseless.

Envy is the adversary of the fortunate.

He who remembers what man is, can be discontented at nothing which happens.

A pilot and a fair wind are necessary to a happy voyage; reason and art, to a happy life.

Of good fortune, as of ripe fruit, we must make the most while it lasts.

He is unreasonable who quarrels with events which happen from natural necessity.

WHAT does it signify to me, said he, whether the universe is composed of atoms or uncompounded substances, — or of fire and earth? Is it not sufficient to know the essence of good and evil, and the proper bounds of the desires and aversions, and of the active powers; and by making use of these as so many certain rules, to order the conduct of life, and let go these things which are above us; which, perhaps, are incomprehensible to human understanding, but if one should suppose them ever so comprehensible, are still of doubtful benefit when comprehended. And must it not be said that he gives himself trouble to no purpose who attributes these things as essential to the character of a philosopher? “What, then, is the Delphic admonition, Know thyself, superfluous?” “No, surely,” said he. “What, then, does it mean?” If any one should admonish a performer in a chorus to know himself, would he not take it as a hint to improve his motions?