Quotes to inspire and reflect

Make money, money by fair means if you can, if not, but any means money.

It is not the rich man you should properly call happy, but him who knows how to use with wisdom the blessings of the gods, to endure hard poverty, and who fears dishonor worse than death, and is not afraid to die for cherished friends or fatherland.

Many brave men lived before Agamemnon; but all are overwhelmed in eternal night, unwept, unknown, because they lack a sacred poet.

With you I should love to live, with you be ready to die.

Force without wisdom falls of its own weight.

Whoever cultivates the golden mean avoids both the poverty of a hovel and the envy of a palace.

In adversity remember to keep an even mind.

Cease to ask what the morrow will bring forth. And set down as gain each day that Fortune grants.

We rarely find anyone who can say he has lived a happy life, and who, content with his life, can retire from the world like a satisfied guest.

Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.

Believe one who has proved it. Believe an expert.

Each of us bears his own Hell.

One of the best rules in conversation is, never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonably wish had been left unsaid.

Yield not to evils, but attack all the more boldly.

Whatever it is, I fear Greeks even when they bring gifts.

I have known sorrow and learned to aid the wretched.

Let us go singing as far as we go: the road will be less tedious.

A snake lurks in the grass.

Ambition drove many men to become false; to have one thought locked in the breast, another ready on the tongue.

To like and dislike the same things, that is indeed true friendship.

The renown which riches or beauty confer is fleeting and frail; mental excellence is a splendid and lasting possession.

What is food to one, is to others bitter poison.

Such evil deeds could religion prompt.

It is not these well-fed long-haired men that I fear, but the pale and the hungry-looking.

Men willingly believe what they wish.

Endless money forms the sinews of war.

The shifts of Fortune test the reliability of friends.

Let the punishment match the offense.

The freedom of poetic license.

History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life and brings us tidings of antiquity.

The goal of life is living in agreement with nature.

Law stands mute in the midst of arms.

When you meet your antagonist, do everything in a mild and agreeable manner. Let your courage be as keen, but at the same time as polished, as your sword.

I call a fig a fig, a spade a spade.

The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities...It is best to win without fighting.

Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.

A military operation involves deception. Even though you are competent, appear to be incompetent. Though effective, appear to be ineffective.

Men must be decided on what they will not do, and then they are able to act with vigor in what they ought to do.

Sincerity is the way of Heaven.

Never has a man who has bent himself been able to make others straight.

Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.

Every advantage in the past is judged in the light of the final issue.

A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.

It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.

Law is order, and good law is good order.

Evil draws men together.

A state is not a mere society, having a common place, established for the prevention of mutual crime and for the sake of exchange...Political society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not of mere companionship.

The basis of a democratic state is liberty.