You must either conquer and rule or serve and lose, suffer or triumph, be the anvil or the hammer.

Woman is mistress of the art of completely imbittering the life of the person on whom she depends.

It is better to do the smallest thing in the world than to hold half an hour to be too small a thing.

What is hardest of all? That which seems most simple: to see with your eyes what is before your eyes.

But the valid issue is the extent to which man knows how to form and master the material at his command.

Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.

No matter what one says, you can recognize only those matters that are equal to you. Only rulers who possess extraordinary abilities will recognize and esteem properly extraordinary abilities in their subjects and servants.