The name of a successor is like the tolling of my own death-bell!

Young heads take example of the ancient

Do not tell secrets to those whose faith and silence you have not already tested.

The stone often recoils on the head of the thrower.

I grieve and dare not show my discontent, I love and yet am forced to seem to hate, I do, yet dare not say I ever meant, I seem stark mute but inwardly do prate. I am and not, I freeze and yet am burned, Since from myself another self I turned. My care is like my shadow in the sun, Follows me flying, flies when I pursue it, Stands and lies by me, doth what I have done.

If there were two princes in Christendom who had good will and courage, it would be very easy to reconcile the religious difficulties; there is only one Jesus Christ and one faith, and all the rest is a dispute over trifles.

A strength to harm is perilous in the hand of an ambitious head.