"Reverence the gods, and help men. Short is life. There is only one fruit of this terrestrial life: a pious disposition and social acts."

"To expect that your friends will not be false is foolish."

"To say that 'men cannot live without women' is to confess that men are not self-sufficient, and that their well-being is dependent on something outside themselves."

"The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts."

"Frightened of change? But what can exist without it? What's closer to nature's heart? Can you take a hot bath and leave the firewood as it was? Eat food without transforming it? How can any action be …"