Being is good, but getting rich is better.... If the gods had only the riches of men's adoration, they would be as poor as poor Caligula.

It is in the thick of calamity that one gets hardened to the truth - in other words, to silence.

... it is true that I do not respect [human life] more than I respect my own life. And if it is easy for me to kill, that is because it is difficult for me to die.

... one cannot be happy in exile or in oblivion. One cannot always be a stranger. I want to return to my homeland, make all my loved ones happy. I see no further than this.

No cause justifies the deaths of innocent people.

No matter how the sun shone, the sea held forth no more promises.

We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love - first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.