A golden bit does not make a better horse. |
A sword by itself does not slay; it is merely the weapon used by the slayer. |
A sword never kills anybody;
it's a tool in the killer's hand. |
Arms observe no bounds; nor can the wrath of the sword, once drawn, be easily checked or stayed; war delights in blood. |
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters. |
As long as you live, keep learning how to live. |
Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body. |
Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones. |
Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment. |
If one doesn't know his mistakes, he won't want to correct them. |
Live among men as if God beheld you; speak with God as if men were listening. |
Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power. |
Once again prosperous and successful crime goes by the name of virtue; good men obey the bad, might is right and fear oppresses law. |
That is why we give to children a proverb, or that which the Greeks call Chreia, to be learned by heart; that sort of thing can be comprehended by the young mind, which cannot as yet hold more. For a man, however, whose progress is definite, to chase after choice extracts and to prop his weakness by the best known and the briefest sayings and to depend upon his memory, is disgraceful; it is time for him to lean on himself. He should make such maxims and not memorize them. For it is disgraceful even for an old man, or one who has sighted old age, to have a note-book knowledge. "This is what Zeno said." But what have you yourself said? "This is the opinion of Cleanthes." But what is your own opinion? How long shall you march under another man's orders? Take command, and utter some word which posterity will remember. Put forth something from your own stock. |
Tis the upright mind that holds true sovereignty. |
Toward good men God has the mind of a father, he cherishes for them a manly love, and he says, "Let them be harassed by toil, by suffering, by losses, in order that they may gather true strength." Bodies grown fat through sloth are weak, and not only labour, but even movement and their very weight cause them to break down. Unimpaired prosperity cannot withstand a single blow; but he who has struggled constantly with his ills becomes hardened through suffering; and yields to no misfortune; nay, even if he falls, he still fights upon his knees. |
Virtue runs no risk of becoming contemptible by being exposed to view, and it is better to be despised for simplicity than to be tormented by continual hypocrisy. |
Laws do not persuade
just because they threaten. |
Men do not care how nobly they live, but only how long, although it is within the reach of every man to live nobly, but within no man's power to live long. |
Besides, he who follows another not only discovers nothing but is not even investigating. |
