Friendship is the medicine for all misfortune; but ingratitude dries up the fountain of all goodness.

Reason must be the universal rule and guide; all things must be done according to reason without allowing oneself to be swayed by emotion.

Had Luther and Calvin been confined before they had begun to dogmatize, the states would have been spared many troubles.

Harshness towards individuals who flout the laws and commands of the state is for the public good; no greater crime against the public interest is possible than to show leniency to those who violate it.

Secrecy is the first essential in affairs of state.

I do not sleep to let others sleep in the shade of my waking.

A virtuous and well-disposed person, like a good metal, the more he is fired, the more he is fined; the more he is opposed, the more he is approved: wrongs may well try him, and touch him, but cannot imprint in him any false stamp.