Taking things not as they ought to be, but as they are, I fear it must be allowed that Macchiavelli will always have more disciples than Jesus.

Sir Richard Steele has observed, that there is this difference between the Church of Rome and the Church of England: the one professes to be infallible, the other to be never in the wrong.

It is not until we have passed through the furnace that we are made to know how much dross there is in our composition.

Wealth after all is a relative thing since he that has little and wants less is richer than he that has much and wants more.

War kills men, and men deplore the loss; but war also crushes bad principles and tyrants, and so saves societies.

Grant graciously what you cannot refuse safely and conciliate those you cannot conquer.

The intoxication of anger, like that of the grape, shows us to others, but hides us from ourselves.