Power is the test. Some, once they have it, are content to buy the show of liking, and punish those who withhold it; then you have a despot. But some keep a true eye for how they seem to others, and care about it, which holds them back from much mischief.

There is nothing like despair to make one throw oneself upon the gods.

All men seek esteem; the best by lifting themselves, which is hard to do, the rest by shoving others down, which is much easier.

Money buys many things... The best of which is freedom.

What keeps the democracy alive at all but the hatred of excellence; the desire of the base to see no head higher than their own?

It is something, I thought, when a king can put a courtesan to the blush.

Alexander, of whom men tell many legends, lived by his own. Achilles must have Patroklos. He might love his Briseis; but Patroklos was the friend till death. At their tombs in Troy, Alexander and Hephaistion had sacrificed together. Wound Patroklos, and Achilles will have your blood.