To call a king "Prince" is pleasing, because it diminishes his rank.

I can readily conceive of a man without hands or feet; and I could conceive of him without a head, if experience had not taught me that by this he thinks, Thought then, is the essence of man, and without this we cannot conceive of him.

Nothing is more dastardly than to act with bravado toward God.

If they [Plato and Aristotle] wrote about politics it was as if to lay down rules for a madhouse. And if they pretended to treat it as something really important it was because they knew that the madmen they were talking to believed themselves to be kings and emperors. They humored these beliefs in order to calm down their madness with as little harm as possible.

Eloquence is a painting of thought; and thus those who, after having painted it, add something more, make a picture instead of a portrait.

I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.

The property of power is to protect.