He who imitates what is evil always goes beyond the example that is set; on the contrary, he who imitates what is good always falls short.

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

The affairs of this world are so shifting and depend on so many accidents, that it is hard to form any judgment concerning the future; nay, we see from experience that the forecasts even of the wise almost always turn out false.

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.

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.

Be careful how you do one man a pleasure which must needs occasion equal displeasure in another. For he who is thus slighted will not forget, but will think the offence to himself the greater in that another profits by it; while he who receives the pleasure will either not remember it, or will consider the favour done him less than it really was.

Since there is nothing so well worth having as friends, never lose a chance to make them.