That incessant envy wherewith the common rate of mankind pursues all superior natures to their own.

No preacher is listened to but time, which gives us the same train and turn of thought that elder people have in vain tried to put into our heads before.

There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake.

The example alone of a vicious prince will corrupt an age; but that of a good one will not reform it.

Imaginary evils soon become real ones by indulging our reflections on them; as he who in a melancholy fancy sees something like a face on the wall or the wainscot can, by two or three touches with a lead pencil, make it look visible, and agreeing with what he fancied.

Men are happy to be laughed at for their humor, but not for their folly.

Arbitrary power is the natural object of temptation to a prince, as wine and women to a young fellow, or a bribe to a judge, or avarice to old age.