Defeat serves to enlighten us.
Learn the value of a man's words and expressions, and you know him. Each man has a measure of his own for everything; this he offers you inadvertently in his words. He who has a superlative for everything wants a measure for the great or small.
The craftiest trickery are too short and ragged a cloak to cover a bad heart.
Malice is poisoned by her own venom.
Borrowed wit is the poorest wit.
When you doubt between words, use the plainest, the commonest, the most idiomatic. Eschew fine words as you would rouge; love simple ones as you would the native roses on your cheek.