Soft men tend to be born from soft countries.

All men's gains are the fruit of venturing.

We have two useless gods who never leave our island, but like to dwell in it constantly, Poverty and Helplessness.

We are less convinced by what we hear than by what we see.

How can a monarchy be a suitable thing, which allows a man to do as he pleases with none to hold him to account. And even if you were to take the best man on earth, and put him into a monarchy, you put outside him the thoughts that usually guide him.

The Persians are very fond of wine ... It is also their general practice to deliberate upon affairs of weight when they are drunk; and then in the morning, when they are sober, the decision to which they came the night before is put before them by the master of the house in which it was made; and if it is then approved they act on it; if not, they set it aside. Sometimes, however, they are sober at their first deliberations, but in this case they always reconsider the matter under the influence of wine.

It is better to be envied than pitied.