A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity.

Aspire rather to be a hero than merely appear one.

To oblige persons often costs little and helps much.

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.

It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards.

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...

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

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.

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.

When desire dies, fear is born.

Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick in the pants will take you a long way.

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

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

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.

Let the first impulse pass, wait for the second.

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

Never have a companion that casts you in the shade.

Know or listen to those who know.

Begin with another’s to end with your own.

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

Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as if they were easy; in the one case that confidence may not fall asleep, in the other that it may not be dismayed.

Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose.

The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied win applause.

We often have to put up with most from those on whom we most depend.

Let him that hath no power of patience retire within himself, though even there he will have to put up with himself.

True knowledge lies in knowing how to live.

Hope has a good memory, gratitude a bad one.

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

Little said is soon amended. There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.

Quit while you’re ahead. All the best gamblers do.

Have friends. ‘Tis a second existence.

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

Many have had their greatness made for them by their enemies.

Hope is a great falsifier. Let good judgment keep her in check.

Never do anything when you are in a temper, for you will do everything wrong.

Luck can be assisted. It is not all chance with the wise.

Don’t show off every day, or you’ll stop surprising people. There must always be some novelty left over. The person who displays a little more of it each day keeps up expectations, and no one...

Respect yourself if you would have others respect you.

He that communicates his secret to another makes himself that other’s slave.

Even knowledge has to be in the fashion, and where it is not, it is wise to affect ignorance.

Nature scarcely ever gives us the very best; for that we must have recourse to art.

There is none who cannot teach somebody something, and there is none so excellent but he is excelled.

Advice is sometimes transmitted more successfully through a joke than grave teaching.

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

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

One must pass through the circumference of time before arriving at the center of opportunity.

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

It is good to vary in order that you may frustrate the curious, especially those who envy you.

I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.

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