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.

Ambassadors are the eye and ear of states.

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

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

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.

There is nothing so fleeting as the memory of benefits received.

Conspiracies, since they cannot be engaged in without the fellowship of others, are for that reason most perilous; for as most men are either fools or knaves, we run excessive risk in making such folk our companions.