“Gold, silver, gems, purple cloth, a marble house and a well-tended field give only a mute and surface pleasure; books delight us through and through, they speak with us, they counsel us, and they join us in a living intimacy.”

Original: Aurum, argentum, gemme, purpurea vestis, marmorea domus, cultus ager... mutum et superficiale gaudium afferunt; libri delectant penitus, loquuntur, consulunt, viva quadam et arguta familiaritate se nobis inserunt. — Sets the companionship of reading against the silence of luxury. · Letter to Giovanni Anchiseo, Familiares III, 18 (Latin)

• Books
• Friendship
• Pleasure

“The greater part of our troubles are imaginary, and we suffer more in apprehension than in reality.”

Warning against allowing fear and anticipation to enlarge suffering · Letters or moral writings, commonly attributed

• Despair
• Truth

“Five enemies of peace live with us: avarice, ambition, envy, anger and pride; if these were banished, we should enjoy perpetual peace.”

Original: Quinque pacis hostes nobiscum habitant: avaritia, ambitio, invidia, ira et superbia; his exactis perpetua pace frueremur. — Peace is framed as an inner expulsion of the passions rather than a political settlement. · Widely attributed from De remediis utriusque fortunae (Latin)

• Anger
• Peace
• Pride