'Virtue does not consist in acquiring the riches of this world, but in attaching all hearts by benefits and good offices.
'If you are insensible to the sufferings of the unfortunate, you do not deserve the name of a man.
'It is better to be loaded with chains for having told the truth, than to be freed from them by means of a lie.
'A wicked person that accuses you of licentiousness should be made to blush, in his turn, by your virtues and your innocence.
'Man should remember that he is born of the earth, and that his pride will one day come to an end in it.
'Crystal is found every where; but nothing is more rare than the diamond, and hence the difference in their value.
'Instruction only bears fruit in so far as it is assisted by your own endeavours.
'The discipline of the master is of greater benefit to the child than the indulgence of the father.
'So long as the tree is young it is easy to fashion it as you please; but when it has been permitted to grow, nothing but fire can straighten it.
'Woe to the man of might, who devours the substance of the people! At last some dire calamity will, of a surety, overtake him.