For the world is only governed by self-interest.
Virtue is no empty echo.
A brave man hazards life, but not his conscience.
It is easy to give advice from a port of safety.
A virtuous name is the precious only good, for which queens and peasants' wives must contest together.
It may here be justly said, that genuine morality is preserved only in the school of adversity, and a state of continuous prosperity may easily prove a quicksand to virtue.