How sternly we reproach virtue for its failings, how indulgent we are to the better qualities of vice!
Honore de BalzacIt is beyond a doubt that during the sixteenth century, and the years immediately preceding and following it, poisoning had been brought to a pitch of perfection which remains unknown to modern chemistry, but which is indisputably proved by history. Italy, the cradle of modern science, was at that time, the inventor and mistress of these secrets, many of which are lost.
Honore de Balzac