I have a wife, I have sons: all of them hostages given to fate.
As great edifices collapse of their own weight, so Heaven sets a similar limit to the growth of prosperous states.
Poverty fled, she who gives birth to virile men.
An idle life always produces varied inclinations.
Deny a strong man his due, and he will take all he can get.
Let him leave the imperial court, who wishes to be virtuous. Virtue and absolute power cannot coexist.