FROM DE BENEFICIIS.
Nature is not without God nor is God without nature. Both are the same and their functions are the same. So, too, nature, destiny, fortune, are all the names of the same God.
It is the mark of a noble and generous soul to be helpful, to do good; he who confers favors, imitates the gods.
Beneficence always makes haste; what one does willingly one does quickly.
We owe no thanks for a favor that has for a long time adhered to the hands of the giver, as it were; which he seems to have let go with reluctance and which one might almost say had been wrested from him.
Those favors are most gratifying to us that are deliberately and willingly offered, and in connection with which the only hesitancy is on the part of the recipient.
I do not make the favors I confer a matter of public record.
He who intends to be grateful ought to think about requiting a favor as soon as he receives it.
This is the law of beneficence between two persons: the one should forthwith forget that he has given; the other should never forget that he has received.
You buy from the physician a thing that is above price, life and health; from the teacher of belles-lettres, acquaintance with the liberal arts. Yet it is not the value of these things that you pay for but their pains, because when they are serving us they give up their private business to devote themselves to us.