Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity than straigthforward and simple integrity in another. A knave would rather quarrel with a brother knave than with a fool, but he would rather avoid a quarrel with one honest man than with both. He can combat a fool by management and address, and he can conquer a knave by temptations. But the honest man is neither to be bamboozled nor bribed.

Were we as eloquent as angels we still would please people much more by listening rather than talking.

War is a game in which princes seldom win, the people never.

Too high an appreciation of our own talents is the chief cause why experience preaches to us all in vain.

Justice to my readers compels me to admit that I write because I have nothing to do; justice to myself induces me to add that I will cease to write the moment I have nothing to say.

True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.

Five thousand years have added no improvement to the hive of the bee, nor to the house of the beaver; but look at the habitations and the achievements of men!