Becoming alternately merchants and merchandise by turns, we ask not what a thing truly is, but what it costs.

For one who is progressing toward virtue, contempt should itself be regarded with contempt.

Two things we must therefore root out: fear of distress in the future and the memory of distress in the past. The one concerns me no longer. The other concerns me not yet.

No longer be concerned with what the world says about you, but with how you talk to yourself. Montaigne,

No servitude is more disgraceful than that which is self-imposed.

He who has need of riches feels fear on their account. But no man enjoys a blessing that brings anxiety. He is always trying to add a little more. While he puzzles over increasing his wealth, he forgets how to use it.

If we felt the headache before getting drunk, we would be careful not to drink to excess. But pleasure, to deceive us, walks in front and hides its train.

No man in public life thinks of the many whom he has surpassed; he thinks rather of those by whom he is surpassed. And these men find it less pleasing to see many behind them than annoying to see anyone ahead of them. That is the trouble with every sort of ambition; it does not look back.

The measure of what is necessary is what is useful.