The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.

The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.

It takes a great man to be a good listener.

One who loses wealth loses much. One who loses a friend loses more. But one who loses courage loses all.

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.

A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem.

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope.

Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.

What a liberation to realize that the “voice in my head” is not who I am. Who am I then? The one who sees that.

Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.

Drop the idea of becoming someone, because you are already a masterpiece. You cannot be improved. You have only to come to it, to know it, to realize it.

Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you are withholding from the world.

Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.

You always admire what you really don't understand.

Appearances often are deceiving.

In order to change the world, you have to get your head together first

One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised.

One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.

Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.

Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!

The ethos of redemption is realized in self-mastery, by means of temperance, that is, continence of desires.