The things we remember best are those better forgotten

Everything foreign is respected, partly because it comes from afar, partly because it is ready made and perfect

Fortune pays sometimes for the intensity of her favors by the shortness of their duration

Knowledge without courage is sterile.

Do not carry a spirit of contradiction, for it is to be freighted with stupidity and with peevishness, and your intelligence should plot against it; though it may well be the mark of mental genius...

Begin with another’s to end with your own.

At twenty a man is a peacock, at thirty a lion, at forty a camel, at fifty a serpent, at sixty a dog, at seventy an ape, at eighty a nothing at all.

Rivalry discovers that courtesy overlooks.

I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.

Mediocrity obtains more with application than superiority without it

The pillow is a silent Sibyl, and it is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards

Evil report carries further than any applause

For a thing to remain undone nothing more is needed than to think of it done

Always leave something to wish for; otherwise you will be miserable from your very happiness.

Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.

To equal a predecessor, one must have twice they worth.

The path to greatness is along with others.

Fortunate people often have very favorable beginnings and very tragic endings. What matters isn’t being applauded when you arrive – for that is common – but being missed when you leave.

The wise does at once what the fool does at last.

Mix a little mystery with everything, for mystery arouses veneration.

Like love, courage is no joking matter. If it yields once, it will have to yield again, and again. The same difficulty will have to be conquered later on, and it would have been better...

There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.

It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck, even while waiting for it

The truest wild beasts live in the most populous places

Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.

Die Freiheit ist kostbarer als jedes Geschenk, das dich verleiten mag, sie aufzugeben.

It is better to have too much courtesy than too little, provided you are not equally courteous to all, for that would be injustice

The sole advantage of power is that you can do more good

Fortune pays you sometimes for the intensity of her favors by the shortness of their duration. She soon tires of carrying any one long on her shoulders.

God Himself chasteneth not with a rod but with time.

Don’t take the wrong side in an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side

True knowledge lies in knowing how to live

A man of honour should never forget what he is because he sees what others are.

To be at ease is better than to be at business. Nothing really belongs to us but time, which even he has who has nothing else.

Work is the price which is paid for reputation

He that can live alone resembles the brute beast in nothing, the sage in much, and God in everything.

Nature and art: The material and the workmanship. There is no beauty unaided, no excellence that does not sink to the barbarous, unless saved by art: It redeems the bad and perfects the good. Because...

Wise men appreciate all men, for they see the good in each and know how hard it is to make anything good

It is a great deed to leave nothing for tomorrow.

Know or listen to those who know.

Never open the door to the lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.

All that really belongs to us is time; even he who has nothing else has that.

Watchfulness is the only guard against cunning. Be intent on his intentions. Many succeed in making others do their own affairs, and unless you possess the key to their motives you may at any moment...

True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island..to find one real friend in a lifetime is good...

Things do not pass for what they are, but for what they seem. Most things are judged by their jackets.

At twenty the will rules, At thirty the intellect, At forty the judgment

Those who insist on the dignity of their office show they have not deserved it.

We have eyelids but not earlids, for the ears are the portals of learning, and Nature wanted to keep them wide open.

Do not show your wounded finger, for everything will knock up against it.

Chance has something to say in everything, even how to write a good letter