Ambassadors are the eye and ear of states.

Ambition is not in itself an evil; nor is he to be condemned whose spirit prompts him to seek fame by worthy and honourable ways.

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.

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

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

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

I know no man who feels deeper disgust than I do at the ambition, avarice, and profligacy of the priesthood, as well because every one of these vices is odious in itself, as because each of them separately and all of them together are utterly abhorrent in men making profession of a life dedicated to God.