...be more guided by hope than fear.

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.

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.

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.

Experience has always shown, and reason also, that affairs which depend on many seldom succeed.

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