Man by nature wants to know.

Man by Nature desires to know.

We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace.

The best tragedies are conflicts between a hero and his destiny.

Those who have the command of the arms in a country are masters of the state, and have it in their power to make what revolutions they please. [Thus,] there is no end to observations on the difference between the measures likely to be pursued by a minister backed by a standing army, and those of a court awed by the fear of an armed people.

Time crumbles things; everything grows old under the power of Time and is forgotten through the lapse of Time.

If the state cannot be entirely composed of good men, and yet each citizen is expected to do his own business well, and must therefore have virtue, still inasmuch as all the citizens cannot be alike, the virtue of the citizen and of the good man cannot coincide. All must have the virtue of the good citizen - thus, and thus only, can the state be perfect; but they will not have the virtue of a good man, unless we assume that in the good state all the citizens must be good.