"That system, again, which makes virtue consist in prudence only, while it gives the highest encouragement to the habits of caution, vigilance, sobriety, and judicious moderation, seems to degrade equally both the amiable and respectable virtues, and to strip the former of all their beauty, and the latter of all their grandeur."

"The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going."

"It behooves a prudent person to make trial of everything before arms."

"Cautious silence is where prudence takes refuge."

"Since men almost always walk in the paths beaten by others and carry on their affairs by imitating—even though it is not possible to keep wholly in the paths of others or to attain the ability of those you imitate—a prudent man will always choose to take paths beaten by great men and to imitate those who have been especially admirable, in order that if his ability does not reach theirs, at least it may offer some suggestion of it; and he will act like prudent archers, who, seeing that the mark they plan to hit is too far away and knowing what space can be covered by the power of their bows, take an aim much higher than their mark, not in order to reach with their arrows so great a height, but to be able, with the aid of so high an aim, to attain their purpose."

"Il est sage de ne mettre ni crainte, ni espérance dans l'avenir incertain."

"A prudent and discreet Silence will be sometimes more to thy Advantage, than the most witty expression, or even the best contrived Sincerity. A Man often repents that he has spoken, but seldom that he has held his Tongue."

"It is only by prudence, wisdom, and dexterity, that great ends are attained and obstacles overcome. Without these qualities nothing succeeds."

"Great Estates may venture more. Little Boats must keep near Shore."

"You will hear every day the maxims of a low prudence. You will hear, that the first duty is to get land and money, place and name. "What is this Truth you seek? What is this Beauty?" men will ask, with derision. If, nevertheless, God have called any of you to explore truth and beauty, be bold, be firm, be true. When you shall say, "As others do, so will I. I renounce, I am sorry for it, my early visions; I must eat the good of the land, and let learning and romantic expectations go, until a more convenient season." — then dies the man in you; then once more perish the buds of art, and poetry, and science, as they have died already in a thousand thousand men. The hour of that choice is the crisis of your history; and see that you hold yourself fast by the intellect."

"Ut quimus, aiunt, quando ut volumus, non licet."

"A prudent Chief not always must display His Pow'rs in equal Ranks, and fair Array, But with th' Occasion and the Place comply, Conceal his Force, nay seem sometimes to Fly."

"Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent."

"He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious."

"You're mistaken: men of sense often learn from their enemies. Prudence is the best safeguard. This principle cannot be learned from a friend, but an enemy extorts it immediately. It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls and ships of war. And this lesson saves their children, their homes, and their properties."

"It is always good When a man has two irons in the fire."

"Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity."

"Look before you ere you leap."

"'Tis true no lover has that pow'r T' enforce a desperate amour, As he that has two strings t' his bow, And burns for love and money too."

"Commodius esse opinor duplici spe utier."

"[Prudence] replaces [strength] by saving the man who has the misfortune of not possessing it from most occasions when it's needed."

"Give us enough but with a sparing hand."

"Id arbitror Adprime in vita esse utile, Ut ne quid nimis."

"There is a limit to enjoyment, though the sources of wealth be boundless, And the choicest pleasures of life lie within the ring of moderation."

"Bonarum rerum consuetudo pessima est."

"He knows to live who keeps the middle state, And neither leans on this side nor on that."

"Give me neither poverty nor riches."

"Modus omnibus in rebus, soror, optimum est habitu; Nimia omnia nimium exhibent negotium hominibus ex se."

"Le juste milieu."

"Medio tutissimus ibis."

"Modica voluptas laxat animos et temperat."

"Take this at least, this last advice, my son: Keep a stiff rein, and move but gently on: The coursers of themselves will run too fast, Your art must be to moderate their haste."

"Aus Mässigkeit entspringt ein reines Glück."

"Auream quisquis mediocritatem deligit tutus caret obsoleti sordibus tecti, caret invidenda sobrius aula."

"This only grant me, that my means may lie Too low for envy, for contempt too high."

"Magni pectoris est inter secunda moderatio."

"Be moderate, be moderate. Why tell you me of moderation? The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I taste, And violenteth in a sense as weak As that which causeth it: how can I moderate it?"

"Souhaitez donc mediocrité."

"Est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum."

"Those words, "temperate and moderate", are words either of political cowardice, or of cunning, or seduction. A thing, moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper, is always a virtue; but moderation in principle, is a species of vice."

"The most necessary disposition to relish pleasures is to know how to be without them."

"I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot."

"Essential to Santayana's position is the Greek ideal of the "life of reason," a conception of the good life as requiring a continual commitment to the pursuit of self-knowledge, discipline, and an unromantic determination to harmonize rather than indulge the passions. It is the ideal of or moderation venerated by classic philosophers like Aristotle and despised by modern ones like Bertrand Russell."

"So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth."

"Be moderate in your walking and your talking."

"If some people asserted that the earth rotated from east to west and others that it rotated from west to east, there would always be a few well-meaning citizens to suggest that perhaps there was something to be said for both sides, and maybe it did a little of one and a little of the other; or that the truth probably lay between the extremes and perhaps it did not rotate at all."

"The moderation of fortunate people comes from the calm which good fortune gives to their tempers."

"Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not a man."

"The animal needing something knows how much it needs, the man does not."