To relinquish a present good through apprehension of a future evil is in most instances unwise ... from a fear which may afterwards turn out groundless, you lost the good that lay within your grasp.

It is a great matter to be in authority over others; for authority, if it be rightly used, will make you feared beyond your actual resources.

Waste no time with revolutions that do not remove the causes of your complaints but simply change the faces of those in charge.

If you attempt certain things at the right time, they are easy to accomplish - in fact, they almost get done by themselves. If you undertake them before the time is right, not only will they fail, but they will often become impossible to accomplish even when the time would have been right.

Let no one trust so entirely to natural prudence as to persuade himself that it will suffice to guide him without help from experience.

We fight to great disadvantage when we fight with those who have nothing to lose.

The return we reap from generous actions is not always evident.