• We are not born perfect: every day we develop in our personality and in our calling till we reach the highest point of our completed being, to the full round of our accomplishments, of our excellences. This is known by the purity of our taste, the clearness of our thought, the maturity of our judgment, and the firmness of our will. Some never arrive at being complete; somewhat is always awanting: others ripen late. The complete man, wise in speech, prudent in act, is admitted to the familiar intimacy of discreet persons, is even sought for by them.

• All victories breed hate, and that over your superior is foolish or fatal.

• There is no higher rule than that over oneself, over one’s impulses: there is the triumph of free will.

• Water shares the good or bad qualities of the strata through which it flows, and man those of the climate in which he is born.

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

• “Substance” is not enough: “accident” is also required, as the scholastics say. A bad manner spoils everything, even reason and justice; a good one supplies everything, gilds a No, sweetens truth, and adds a touch of beauty to old age itself. The how plays a large part in affairs, a good manner steals into the affections. Fine behaviour is a joy in life, and a pleasant expression helps out of a difficulty in a remarkable way.

• Mediocrity obtains more with application than superiority without it.

• Work is the price which is paid for reputation.

• What costs little is little worth.

• The real can never equal the imagined, for it is easy to form ideals but very difficult to realise them.

• Things have their period; even excellences are subject to fashion.

• There are rules of luck: it is not all chance with the wise: it can be assisted by care.

• Some content themselves with placing themselves confidently at the gate of Fortune, waiting till she opens it. Others do better, and press forward and profit by their clever boldness, reaching the goddess and winning her favour on the wings of their virtue and valour.

• Be Spotless: the indispensable condition of perfection. Few live without some weak point, either physical or moral, which they pamper because they could easily cure it.

• The highest skill is to transform them into ornament. So Cæsar hid his natural defects with the laurel.

• First guess a man’s ruling passion, appeal to it by a word, set it in motion by temptation, and you will infallibly give checkmate to his freedom of will.

• Excellence resides in quality not in quantity. The best is always few and rare: much lowers value. Even among men giants are commonly the real dwarfs. Some reckon books by the thickness, as if they were written to try the brawn more than the brain. Extent alone never rises above mediocrity: it is the misfortune of universal geniuses that in attempting to be at home everywhere, are so nowhere. Intensity gives eminence, and rises to the heroic in matters sublime.

• More depends on that than on noticing your temperament. If he is a fool who at forty applies to Hippocrates for health, still more is he one who then first applies to Seneca for wisdom. It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck even while waiting for it. For something is to be done with it by waiting so as to use it at the proper moment, since it has periods and offers opportunities, though one cannot calculate its path, its steps are so irregular. When you find Fortune favourable, stride boldly forward, for she favours the bold and, being a woman, the young. But if you have bad luck, keep retired so as not to redouble the influence of your unlucky star.

• All the best players do it. A fine retreat is as good as a gallant attack. Bring your exploits under cover when there are enough, or even when there are many of them. Luck long lasting was ever suspicious; interrupted seems safer, and is even sweeter to the taste for a little infusion of bitter-sweet. The higher the heap of luck, the greater the risk of a slip, and down comes all. Fortune pays you sometimes for the intensity of her favours by the shortness of their duration. She soon tires of carrying any one long on her shoulders.

• The works of nature all reach a certain point of maturity; up to that they improve, after that they degenerate. Few works of art reach such a point that they cannot be improved. It is an especial privilege of good taste to enjoy everything at its ripest. Not all can do this, nor do all who can know this. There is a ripening point too for fruits of intellect; it is well to know this both for their value in use and for their value in exchange.

• Exaggeration is a branch of lying, and you lose by it the credit of good taste, which is much, and of good sense, which is more.

• Such magisterial spirits are kings by merit and lions by innate privilege.

• By swimming against the stream it is impossible to remove error, easy to fall into danger; only a Socrates can undertake it.

• Truth is for the few, error is both common and vulgar. The wise man is not known by what he says on the house-tops, for there he speaks not with his own voice but with that of common folly, however much his inmost thoughts may gainsay it. The prudent avoid being contradicted as much as contradicting: though they have their censure ready they are not ready to publish it.

• The wise man therefore retires into silence, and if he allows himself to come out of it, he does so in the shade and before few and fit persons.

• Everything artificial should be concealed, most of all cunning, which is hated.

• We often allow ourselves to take dislikes, and that before we know anything of a person. At times this innate yet vulgar aversion attaches Itself to eminent personalities. Good sense masters this feeling, for there is nothing more discreditable than to dislike those better than ourselves. As sympathy with great men en-nobles us, so dislike to them degrades us.

• How much depends on the person. The interior must be at least as much as the exterior. There are natures all frontage, like houses that for want of means have the portico of a palace leading to the rooms of a cottage.

• Others may be taken in by them because they themselves have but a view of the surface, but not the prudent, who look within them and find nothing there except material for scorn.

• Keen observation, subtle insight, judicious inference: with these he discovers, notices, grasps, and comprehends everything.

• Let your own right feeling be the true standard of your rectitude, and owe more to the strictness of your own self-judgment than to all external sanctions.

• Diligence promptly executes what intelligence slowly excogitates. Hurry is the failing of fools; they know not the crucial point and set to work without preparation.

• the wise more often fail from procrastination;

• Celerity is the mother of good fortune. He has done much who leaves nothing over till to-morrow.

• Even hares can pull the mane of a dead lion. There is no joke about courage.

• First be master over yourself if you would be master over others. You must pass through the circumference of time before arriving at the centre of opportunity.

• To last an eternity requires an eternity of preparation. Only excellence counts; only achievement endures. Profound intelligence is the only foundation for immortality. Worth much costs much. The precious metals are the heaviest.

• There is no need to show your ability before every one. Employ no more force than is necessary.

• If there is too much display to-day there will be nothing to show to-morrow.

• To show something fresh each day keeps expectation alive and conceals the limits of capacity.

• In the house of Fortune, if you enter by the gate of pleasure you must leave by that of sorrow and vice versâ. You ought therefore to think of the finish, and attach more importance to a graceful exit than to applause on entrance.

• The important point is not the vulgar applause on entrance—that comes to nearly all—but the general feeling at exit.

• Mediocrities never win applause. Eminence in some distinguished post distinguishes one from the vulgar mob and ranks us with the elect. To be distinguished in a Small post is to be great in little: the more comfort, the less glory. The highest eminence in great affairs has the royal characteristic of exciting admiration and winning goodwill.

• and to be eminent in it as well, a double one. To have the first move is a great ad-vantage when the players are equal. Many a man

• Those who come first are the heirs of Fame; the others get only a younger brother’s allowance: whatever they do, they cannot persuade the world they are anything more than parrots.

• By the novelty of their enterprises sages write their names in the golden book of heroes.

• Some prefer to be first in things of minor import than second in greater exploits.

  • Geil!

• Things of the first importance are few; let appreciation be rare.

• The victor need not explain. The world does not notice the details of the measures employed; but only the good or ill result.

• A good end gilds everything, however unsatisfactory the means. Thus at times it is part of the art of life to transgress the rules of the art, if you cannot end well otherwise.

• There are some callings which gain universal esteem, while others more important are without credit. The former, pursued before the eyes of all, obtain the universal favour; the others, though they are rarer and more valuable, remain obscure and unperceived, honoured but not applauded.

• He is a great man who never allows himself to be influenced by the impressions of others.

• Self-knowledge is the beginning of self-improvement.

• One ought not to give way in everything nor to everybody.

• deeds. Yes and No are soon said, but give much to think over.

• That is how smart people get out of difficulties. They extricate themselves from the most intricate labyrinth by some witty application of a bright remark. They get out of a serious contention by an airy nothing or by raising a smile.

• Choose an Heroic Ideal; but rather to emulate than to imitate. There are exemplars of greatness, living texts of honour. Let every one have before his mind the chief of his calling not so much to follow him as to spur himself on.

• Nothing arouses ambition so much in the heart as the trumpet-clang of another’s fame. The same thing that sharpens envy, nourishes a generous spirit.

• Jest has its little hour, seriousness should have all the rest.

• Be all Things to all Men —a discreet Proteus, learned with the learned, saintly with the sainted. It is the great art to gain every one’s suffrages; their goodwill gains general agreement. Notice men’s moods and adapt yourself to each, genial or serious as the case may be.

• Every rush forward is freed from danger by caution, while fortune some-times helps in such cases.

• Nowadays there are unsuspected depths in human intercourse, you must therefore cast the lead at every step.

• The greatest men join in the fun at times, and it makes them liked by all. But they should always on such occasions preserve their dignity, nor go beyond the bounds of decorum. Others, again, get themselves out of difficulty quickest by a joke. For there are things you must take in fun, though others perhaps mean them in earnest. You show a sense of placability, which acts as a magnet on all hearts.

• We live by information, not by sight. We exist by faith in others. The ear is the area-gate of truth but the front-door of lies. The truth is generally seen, rarely heard; seldom she comes in elemental purity, especially from afar; there is always some admixture of the moods of those through whom she has passed.

• comes. Let reflection assay falsity and exaggeration.

• Renew your Brilliance. ’Tis the privilege of the Phœnix. Ability is wont to grow old, and with it fame. The staleness of custom weakens admiration, and a mediocrity that’s new often eclipses the highest excellence grown old. Try therefore to be born again in valour, in genius, in fortune, in all. Display startling novelties, rise afresh like the sun every day. Change too the scene on which you shine, so that your loss may be felt in the old scenes of your triumph, while the novelty of your powers wins you applause in the new.

• If you milk a cow too much you draw blood, not milk.

• Allow Yourself some venial Fault. Some such carelessness is often the greatest recommendation of talent.

• A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.

• Be extraordinary in your excellence, if you like, but be ordinary in your display of it. The more light a torch gives, the more it burns away and the nearer ’tis to going out. Show yourself less and you will be rewarded by being esteemed more.

• Many heads go to make the mob, and in each of them are eyes for malice to use and a tongue for detraction to wag. If a single ill report spread, it casts a blemish on your fair fame, and if it clings to you with a nickname, your reputation is in danger.

• Man is born a barbarian, and only raises himself above the beast by culture.

• Let your Behaviour be Fine and Noble. A great man ought not to be little in his behaviour. He ought never to pry too minutely into things, least of all in unpleasant matters.

• Know Yourself —in talents and capacity, in judgment and inclination. You cannot master yourself unless you know yourself.

• There are mirrors for the face but none for the mind.

• Lead a good life.

• Just as virtue is its own reward, so is vice its own punishment. He who lives a fast life runs through life in a double sense. A virtuous life never dies. The firmness of the soul is communicated to the body, and a good life is long not only in intention but also in extension.

• Never set to work at anything if you have any doubts of its Prudence.

• It is enough if you satisfy the wise, for their judgment is the touchstone of true success.

• Versatility. A man of many excellences equals many men.

• Variety in excellences is the delight of life.

• Keep the extent of your Abilities unknown. The wise man does not allow his knowledge and abilities to be sounded to the bottom, if he desires to be honoured by all. He allows you to know them but not to comprehend them.

• Do not rest your whole fortune on a single cast of the die.

• Reality and Appearance. Things pass for what they seem, not for what they are. Few see inside; many take to the outside. It is not enough to be right, if right seem false and ill.

• You should aim to be independent of any one vote, of any one fashion, of any one century.

• Be able to stomach big slices of Luck.

• Big bits of luck do not embarrass one who can digest still bigger ones.

• A man of talent therefore should show that he has more room for even greater enterprises, and above all avoid showing signs of a little heart.

• Good things, when short, are twice as good.

• The quintessence of the matter is more effective than a whole farrago of details.

• Those who insist on the dignity of their office, show they have not deserved it, and that it is too much for them.

• Because a man cannot achieve the superlative perfections of others, he contents himself with any mediocre talent of his own.

• Do not wait till you are a Sinking Sun.

• ’Tis a maxim of the wise to leave things before things leave them.

• One should be able to snatch a triumph at the end, just as the sun even at its brightest often retires behind a cloud so as not to be seen sinking, and to leave in doubt whether he has sunk or no.

• A beauty should break her mirror early, lest she do so later with open eyes.

• There is no magic like a good turn, and the way to gain friendly feelings is to do friendly acts. The most and best of us depend on others; we have to live either among friends or among enemies.

• In Prosperity prepare for Adversity.

• It is both wiser and easier to collect winter stores in summer.

• Only act with Honourable Men. You can trust them and they you.

• Avoid becoming Disliked. There is no occasion to seek dislike: it comes without seeking quickly enough.

• Live Practically.

• Get Yourself missed.

• You should keep your desires sealed up, still more your defects.

• Reputation depends more on what is hidden than on what is done; if a man does not live chastely, he must live cautiously.

• Never complain. To complain always brings discredit. Better be a model of self-reliance opposed to the passion of others than an object of their compassion.

• Do and be seen Doing.

• Things do not pass for what they are but for what

• they seem. To be of use and to know how to show yourself of use, is to be twice as useful.

• What is not seen is as if it was not. Even the Right does not receive proper consideration if it does not seem right.

• Deceit rules the roast, and things are judged by their jackets, and many things are other than they seem. A good exterior is the best recommendation of the inner perfection.

• Especially when the course of action is not clear, you gain time either to confirm or improve your decision.

• And if it is a matter of giving, the gift is the more valued from its being evidently well considered than for being promptly bestowed:

• “To live entirely alone one must be very like a god or quite like a wild beast,”

• Double your Resources. You thereby double your life. One must not depend on one thing or trust to only one resource, however pre-eminent. Everything should be kept double, especially the causes of success, of favour, or of esteem.

• The more so the wilder the waves of public or of private life. There are hurricanes in human affairs, tempests of passion, when it is wise to retire to a harbour and ride at anchor. Remedies often make diseases worse: in such cases one has to leave them to their natural course and the moral suasion of time. It takes a wise doctor to know when not to prescribe, and at times the greater skill consists in not applying remedies.

• They exist: nothing goes well on them; even though the game may be changed the ill-luck remains. Two tries should be enough to tell if one is in luck to-day or not. Everything is in process of change, even the mind, and no one is always wise: chance has something to say, even how to write a good letter. All perfection turns on the time; even beauty has its hours. Even wisdom fails at times by doing too much or too little.

• They have the luckier taste who midst a thousand defects seize upon a single beauty they may have hit upon by chance.

• It is no use pleasing yourself if you do not please others,

• Never from Obstinacy take the Wrong Side because your Opponent has anticipated you in taking the Right One. You begin the fight already beaten and must soon take to flight in disgrace. With bad weapons one can never win.

• Such obstinacy is more dangerous in actions than in words, for action encounters more risk than talk.

• If the enemy is a fool, he will in such a case turn round to follow the opposite and worse way. Thus the only way to drive him from the better course is to take it yourself, for his folly will cause him to desert it, and his obstinacy be punished for so doing.

• One should never advance unless under cover, especially where the ground is dangerous.

• Do not show your wounded Finger, for everything will knock up against it; nor complain about it, for malice always aims where weakness can be injured.

• The wise never own to being hit, or disclose any evil, whether personal or hereditary.

• Never therefore disclose the source of mortification or of joy, if you wish the one to cease, the other to endure.

• Things are generally other than they seem, and ignorance that never looks beneath the rind becomes disabused when you show the kernel. Lies always come first, dragging fools along by their irreparable vulgarity. Truth always lags last, limping along on the arm of Time.

• None is so perfect that he does not need at times the advice of others.

• The highest should have the door open for friendship; it may prove the gate of help. A friend must be free to advise, and even to upbraid, without feeling embarrassed.

• Some hold that the art of conversation is to be without art—that it should be neat, not gaudy, like the garments. This holds good for talk between friends. But when held with persons to whom one would show respect, it should be more dignified to answer to the dignity of the person addressed. To be appropriate it should adapt itself to the mind and tone of the interlocutor.

• Everything cannot turn out well, nor can every one be satisfied: it is well therefore, even at the cost of our pride, to have such a scapegoat, such a target for unlucky undertakings.

• Their intrinsic value is not sufficient; for all do not bite at the kernel or look into the interior.

• The greatest foresight consists in determining beforehand the time of trouble.

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

• Rumination and foresight enable one to determine the line of life.

• The more he does so, the less desirable a companion he is. The more he excels in quality the more in repute: he will always play first fiddle and you second.

• Never join one that eclipses you, but rather one who sets you in a brighter light.

• When you are on the way to fortune associate with the eminent; when arrived, with the mediocre.

• Beware of entering where there is a great Gap to be filled. But if you do it be sure to surpass your predecessor;

• As it is a fine stroke to arrange that our successor shall cause us to be wished back, so it is policy to see that our predecessor does not eclipse us.

• Maturity of mind is best shown in slow belief. Lying is the usual thing; then let belief be unusual.

• Few are the friends of a man’s self, most those of his circumstances.

• Better be cheated in the price than in the quality of goods.

• To know men is different from knowing things.

• We often have to put up with most from those on whom we most depend: a useful lesson in self-control.

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

• Never, from Sympathy with the Unfortunate, involve Yourself in his Fate.

• A mean victory brings no glory, but rather disgrace.

• Distinguish the Man of Words from the Man of Deeds.

• In all Things keep Something in Reserve.

• A man should not employ all his capacity and power at once and on every occasion.

• One must always have something to resort to when there is fear of a defeat.

• Never contend with a Man who has nothing to Lose;

• Have Knowledge, or know those that have Knowledge.

• Trust your Heart, especially when it has been proved. Never deny it a hearing.

• Never stake your Credit on a single Cast; for if it miscarries the damage is irreparable. It may easy happen that a man should fail once, especially at first:

• Always have resort to better means and appeal to more resources. Things depend on all sorts of chances. That is why the satisfaction of success is so rare.

• Do pleasant Things Yourself, unpleasant Things through Others.

• A great man takes more pleasure in doing a favour than in receiving one: it is the privilege of his generous nature.

• To promise everything is to promise nothing:

• There is equal folly in troubling our heart about what does not concern us and in not taking to heart what does.

• Have reasonable Views of Yourself and of your Affairs, especially in the beginning of life.

• Every one dreams of his good-luck and thinks himself a wonder.

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

• Know your ruling Star.

• He that does not know a fool when he sees him is one himself: still more he that knows him but will not keep clear of him.

• We have seen persons once the laughing-stock of their village and now the wonder of the whole world, honoured by their fellow-countrymen and by the foreigners [among whom they dwell];

• afar. The statue on the altar is never reverenced by him who knew it as a trunk in the garden.

• To find a proper Place by Merit, not by Presumption.

• The true road to respect is through merit,

• Leave Something to wish for, so as not to be miserable from very happiness.

• Even in knowledge there should be always something left to know in order to arouse curiosity and excite hope.

• Though all the world is full of fools, there is none that thinks himself one, or even suspects the fact.

• One should speak well and act honourably: the one is an excellence of the head, the other of the heart, and both arise from nobility of soul.

• Words are the shadows of deeds; the former are feminine, the latter masculine.

• Speech is easy, action hard. Actions are the stuff of life, words its frippery. Eminent deeds endure, striking words pass away.

• There is one Phœnix in the whole world, one great general, one perfect orator, one true philosopher in a century, a really illustrious king in several.

• Mediocrities are as numerous as they are worth-less: eminent greatness is rare in every respect, since it needs complete perfection, and the higher the species the more difficult is the highest rank in it.

• There have been few Senecas, and fame records but one Apelles.

• Attempt easy Tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as if they were easy.

• On the other hand, patient industry overcomes impossibilities.

• they share with shadows this quality, that they flee from him who follows them and follow him that flees from them.

• Be Moderate. One has to consider the chance of a mischance.

• The wise generally die after they have lost their reason: fools before they have found it.

• Keep Yourself free from common Follies.

• Everything past seems best and everything distant is more valued.

• ’Tis dangerous, yet a good man cannot avoid speaking it. But great skill is needed here: the most expert doctors of the soul pay great attention to the means of sweetening the pill of truth.

• In Heaven all is bliss: in Hell all misery. On earth, between the two, both one thing and the other.

• Keep to Yourself the final Touches of your Art.

• In amusing and teaching you must keep to the rule: keep up expectation and advance in perfection.

• Neither Love nor Hate, for ever

• you cannot clothe Yourself in Lionskin use Foxpelt.

• He that gets what he wants never loses his reputation.

• When you cannot get a thing then is the time to despise it.

• There is a favourable and an unfavourable side to everything, the cleverness consists in finding out the favourable. The same thing looks quite different in another light; look at it therefore on its best side and do not exchange good for evil.

• Do not be the Slave of First Impressions.

• Wait for the second or even third edition of news. To be the slave of your impressions argues want of capacity, and is not far from being the slave of your passions.

• Do not be a Scandal-monger. Still less pass for one, for that means to be considered a slanderer.

• Do not be witty at the cost of others: it is easy but hateful.

• Plan out your Life wisely, not as chance will have it, but with prudence and foresight.

• Never let Things be seen half-finished. They can only be enjoyed when complete. All beginnings are misshapen, and this deformity sticks in the imagination.

• Very wise folk are generally easily deceived, for while they know out-of-the-way things they do not know the ordinary things of life, which are much more needful.

• To know more than is necessary blunts your weapons, for fine points generally bend or break.

• Common-sense truth is the surest.

• Push Advantages. Some put all their strength in the commencement and never carry a thing to a conclusion. They invent but never execute. These be paltering spirits.

• They obtain no fame, for they sustain no game to the end.

• If the undertaking is good, why not finish it? If it is bad, why undertake it?

• Alternate the cunning of the serpent with the candour of the dove.

• They manage matters so cleverly that they seem to be doing others a service when receiving one from them.

• Original and out-of-the-way Views are signs of superior ability.

• On the contrary, it should disturb us if our affairs please every one, for that is a sign that they are of little worth. Perfection is for the few.

• Do not Explain overmuch.

• It is a sign of good taste to combine bitter and sweet.

• All sweets is diet for children and fools.

• Silken Words, sugared Manners. Arrows pierce the body, insults the soul. Sweet pastry perfumes the breath. It is a great art in life to know how to sell wind. Most things are paid for in words, and by them you can remove impossibilities. Thus we deal in air, and a royal breath can produce courage and power. Always have your mouth full of sugar to sweeten your words, so that even your ill-wishers enjoy them. To please one must be peaceful.

• Make use of the Novelty of your Position; for men are valued while they are new.

• thought more of than accustomed excellence. Ability wears away by use and becomes old.

• Accordingly, learn to utilise the first fruits of appreciation, and seize during the rapid passage of applause all that can be put to use.

• There must be something good in a thing that pleases so many; even if it cannot be explained it is certainly enjoyed.

• Be Attractive.

• Know how to renew your Character, with the help both of Nature and of Art, Every seven years the disposition changes, they say. Let it be a change for the better and for the nobler in your taste. After the first seven comes reason, with each succeeding lustre let a new excellence be added.

• At twenty 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 nothing at all.

• Display yourself. ’Tis the illumination of talents: for each there comes an appropriate moment; use it, for not every day comes a triumph.

• There are some dashing men who make much show with a little, a whole exhibition with much.

• Display fills up much, supplies much, and gives a second existence to things, especially when combined with real excellence.

• Skill is however needed for display. Even excellence depends on circumstances and is not always opportune.

• Be Trustworthy.

• Make use of Absence to make yourself more esteemed or valued.

• Imagination reaches farther than sight, and disillusion, which ordinarily comes through the ears, also goes out through the ears.

• Even the Phœnix uses its retirement for new adornment and turns absence into desire.

• Have the Gift of Discovery. It is a proof of the highest genius, yet when was genius without a touch of madness?

• For many can follow up a thing when found, but to find it first is the gift of the few, and those the first in excellence and in age.

• There is great caution needed in helping the drowning without danger to oneself.

• Do not become responsible for all or for every one, otherwise you become a slave and the slave of all.

• Freedom is more precious than any gifts for which you may be tempted to give it up.

• Lay less stress on making many dependent on you than on keeping yourself independent of any.

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

• and passion always drives out reason.

• Do not live by certain fixed rules, except those that relate to the cardinal virtues.

• is more important to know the characteristics and properties of persons than those of vegetables and minerals.

• Words are proof of integrity, deeds still more.

• On ceasing to be a child a man begins to gain seriousness and authority.

• Every one holds views according to his interest, and imagines he has abundant grounds for them.

• It may occur that two may meet with exactly opposite views and yet each thinks to have reason on his side, yet reason is always true to itself and never has two faces.

• Place yourself in such a case in the other man’s place and then investigate the reasons for his opinion. You will not then condemn him or justify yourself in such a confusing way.

• content yourself with doing, leave the talking to others.

• Aspire rather to be a hero than merely to appear one.

• Noble qualities make noblemen: a single one of them is worth more than a multitude of mediocre ones.

• Always act as if your Acts were seen.

• He knows that walls have ears and that ill deeds rebound back.

• a fertile genius, a profound intellect, a pleasant and refined taste.

• At twenty the will rules; at thirty the intellect; at forty the judgment.

• There are minds that shine in the dark like the eyes of the lynx, and are most clear where there is most darkness.

• Demand is the measure of value.

• Little and good is twice good.

• Virtue is the link of all perfections, the centre of all the felicities. She it is that makes a man prudent, discreet, sagacious, cautious, wise, courageous, thoughtful, trustworthy, happy, honoured, truthful, and a universal Hero.

• Three HHH’s make a man happy—Health, Holiness, and a Headpiece.

• Virtue alone is serious, all else is but jest.

• A man’s capacity and greatness are to be measured by his virtue and not by his fortune. She alone is all-sufficient. She makes men lovable in life, memorable after death.