Keep your eye fixed not so much on what they [people] ought in reason to do, as on what they are likely to do based on their disposition and habits.

He is less likely to be mistaken who looks forward to a change in the affairs of the world than he who regards them as firm and stable.

Affairs that depend on many rarely succeed.

Like other men, I have sought honours and preferment, and often have obtained them beyond my wishes or hopes. Yet never have I found in them that content which I had figured beforehand in my mind. A strong reason, if we well consider it, why we should disencumber ourselves of vain desires.

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.

How much luckier than all the rest of mankind are the astrologers who, if they tell one truth among a hundred lies, obtain so much credit that even their lies are believed.

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