Most people affirm pleasure to be the good, but the finer sort of wits say it is knowledge.

All knowledge that is divorced from justice must be called cunning.

Trees and fields tell me nothing; men are my teachers.

Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the gods; desired by those who have no part in him, and precious to those who have the better part in him.

The true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention.

Old age has a great sense of calm and freedom; when the passions relax their hold, then ... we are freed from the grasp not of one mad master only, but of many.

Violent pleasures which reach the soul through the body are generally of this sort-they are reliefs of pain.

Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity.

He who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden.

They deem him their worst enemy who tells them the truth.