As for me, then, I love life and cultivate it just as God has been pleased to grant it to us.

We should spread joy, but, as far as we can, repress sorrow.

Things seem greater by imagination than they are in effect.

It has never occurred to me to wish for empire or royalty, nor for the eminence of those high and commanding fortunes. My aim lies not in that direction; I love myself too well.

And I loathe people who find it harder to put up with a gown askew than with a soul askew and who judge a man by his bow, his bearing and his boots.

Vice leaves repentance in the soul, like an ulcer in the flesh, which is always scratching and lacerating itself; for reason effaces all other griefs and sorrows, but it begets that of repentance.

The secret counsels of princes are a troublesome burden to such as have only to execute them.