During life, valiant men arouse envy, and the dead (for they can no longer be rivals) are honored without envy.
There is no shame in acknowledging poverty, but it is shameful not to try to get out of it by working.
The prosperity of a city as a whole brings more benefits to each individual citizen than the well-being of a few against the background of general decay.
Diligence and a full treasury are the most valuable for military success.
You must respond to aggression with aggression.
Fear erases memory.
Arrows would be much more valuable if they knew how to distinguish brave men. (Answer of an Athenian prisoner when asked by the victor whether brave men also fell on the field of battle).
He believes that happiness is freedom and freedom is courage.
The woman of whom men speak least, both with contempt and with praise, is the most worthy of respect.
Only a shared fear makes an alliance trustworthy.
Success in war does not depend on weapons, but on the financial means whose existence makes weapons useful.
I do not blame those who tend to power, but those who are too hasty to submit to it. Because man by nature always wants to dominate those who obey him.
In life all things differ from one another, and in death all are identical. During life they differ from one another the educated from the rude, the noble from the base; in death they are identical in that they all putrefy, decay, decay and disappear... You must enjoy yourself during life and not bother about life after death!
Life cannot be preserved by cherishing it.
Life is such a rare chance, while death is so easily obtained. Who would have invented such a thing: To live so hard the life that was given to you, in anticipation of death so easily obtained!
How to take care of your life? Don't stop yourself, don't stop. Live exclusively free. Give your ears permission to listen to whatever they want; give permission to the eyes to look at what they want; give permission to the mouth to say whatever it wants; allow the body to find its peace as it wants; allow the heart to think as it wishes. Thought wants to be free - do not hinder it, let it go forward. Nothing is more precious than silence, nothing is more precious than emptiness. Live like this and your life will be full of joy until the day you die. That's what I call taking care of your life. If you will begin to restrain yourself incessantly and live in sorrow and worry in the name of longevity, even if you want to live a hundred or a thousand years - that is not what I call taking care of your life.
"During life mourn one another, and in the hour of death forsake one another" - in this ancient thought lies the truth. "Weep for one another" - means to be ready to give shelter to the weary, to feed the hungry, to warm the frozen, to find a way out for the one in trouble. "Forsake one another" - these words say not that you should not mourn for the missing one, but that you should not clothe him in embroidered brocade, do not put pearls and jade in his mouth, do not offer sacrifices, don't put shiny dishes next to it.
Justice is not enough to benefit other people, but it is enough to harm your own life.
He who knows how to enjoy himself in life does not become poor, and he who knows how to burden himself with worries does not become rich.
If the consequences of two things are bad, the one from which the lesser evil results is preferable.
Happiness consists in the activity of the soul according to virtue.
God is beyond virtue and vice. For a vicious man probably does a thousand times more harm than an animal.
Learning is the best baggage for old age.
All sciences are more necessary than philosophy, but none is superior.
Every virtue is the mean between two opposite extremes.
Anyone can be angry, and this is as easy as giving and spending money, but not everyone can do it as it should, as much as it should, for what and how it should.
Anyone loves his creation more than it would love him if it came to life.
A remarkable soul is no stranger to madness.
Anger is a ferocious passion belonging to the disposition of the soul, capable of frequent recurrence, violent, and of immovable power, serving as the cause of crimes, the ally of misfortune, the accomplice of corruption and dishonesty.
It is impossible to do something virtuous without experiencing pleasure from it.