Shut up or speak what's better than silence.
Wise man! If you are forced to live in the midst of simple crowds, be like oil that floats on the surface of the water, but does not mix with it.
Wise man! If you want to announce some important truth to the people, dress it up in the clothes of general opinion.
Always rely on your dog's faith, your wife's, until proven otherwise.
On the plain of life, walk, like the sower, with even and measured step.
World! Before you have laws, strive to have good habits: good habits are the first laws.
Learn to know men: the knowledge of men is more attainable and necessary than the knowledge of gods.
The beginning is half the finished work.
Don't be one of those people who only seem wise in what they write.
Do not make yourself a member of a learned assembly: even the wisest, when they form a society, become commoners.
Do not proclaim the truth in the public square: the crowd will use it to do evil.
Do not scold your wife in front of the children.
Do not choose as your friend the one who does not live in harmony with his wife.
He who does not fulfill his duty as a father of a family can neither be a legislator nor a ruler of the city.
Do not strive to acquire the supreme knowledge: of all the sciences, the science of morals is probably the most necessary, but it is not taught.
Don't raise dust on the road of life.
Don't confuse science with wisdom.
Just as gold does not rust, neither does shame cling to virtue.
Never take counsel with the smooth-faced; they never think.
Never go overboard, neither in eating nor in drinking.
Never wonder: wonder created the gods.
He who embitters his neighbor can scarcely keep himself from embitterment.
It is as dangerous to give a fool a sword as it is to give power to a rogue.
You must entrust your life to reason alone, especially in youth, as you would entrust to a wise tutor.
Better a drop of common sense than a chariot of wisdom.
Work your field with your own hands, do not let your slaves cultivate it for you: the cultivation of the soil requires the arms of a free man.
May order be your deity! Serve her unceasingly: order is the unity of all things. Nature itself exists through order.
Leave it to the priests to inquire into the being of the gods; you deal with the knowledge of the human heart.
First of all, learn to call every thing by its name: this is the first and foremost of sciences.
Above all, don't lose your self-respect!