I beg you take courage; the brave soul can mend even disaster.

I may be kindly, I am ordinarily gentle, but in my line of business I am obliged to will terribly what I will at all.

self-interest usually brings injustice with it.

In politics a capable ruler must be guided by circumstances, conjectures and conjunctions.

to tempt and be tempted are closely allied; and in spite of all the finest moral maxims buried in the mind, when emotion interferes, when feeling makes its appearance, one is already much further involved that one realizes, and I have still not learnt how to prevent its appearance.

I do not love strife, because I have always found that in the end each remains of the same opinion.

Nothing is more difficult, in my opinion, than to avoid something that fundamentally attracts you.