C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Pythagoras
A stranger, if just, is not only to be preferred before a countryman, but a kinsman.
A wound from a tongue is worse than a wound from the sword; the latter affects only the body—the former, the spirit, the soul.
Above all things, reverence yourself.
Anger begins with folly, and ends with repentance.
Be silent, or say something better than silence.
Choose always the way that seems the best, however rough it may be. Custom will render it easy and agreeable.
Friends are as companions on a journey, who ought to aid each other to persevere in the road to a happier life.
If there be light, then there is darkness; if cold, then heat; if height, depth also; if solid, then fluid; hardness and softness, roughness and smoothness, calm and tempest, prosperity and adversity, life and death.
In this theater of man’s life, it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers-on.
It is better either to be silent, or to say things of more value than silence. Sooner throw a pearl at hazard than an idle or useless word; and do not say a little in many words, but a great deal in a few.
It is only necessary to make war with five things: with the maladies of the body, the ignorances of the mind, with the passions of the body, with the seditions of the city, and the discords of families.
Let a man use great reverence and manners to himself.
Let exercise alternate with rest.
Let not sleep fall upon thy eyes till thou hast thrice reviewed the transactions of the past day. Where have I turned aside from rectitude? What have I been doing? What have I left undone, which I ought to have done? Begin thus from the first act, and proceed; and in conclusion, at the ill which thou hast done, be troubled, and rejoice for the good.
No man is free who cannot command himself.
There are in woman’s eyes two sorts of tears,—the one of grief, the other of deceit.
Truth is so great a perfection that if God would render himself visible to men, he would choose light for his body and truth for his soul.
Truth is to be sought with a mind purified from the passions of the body. Having overcome evil things, thou shalt experience the union of the immortal divinity with the mortal man.
We ought not to quit our post without the permission of Him who commands; the post of man is life.
Wealth is a weak anchor, and glory cannot support a man; this is the law of God, that virtue only is firm, and cannot be shaken by a tempest.