The vulgar and common esteem is seldom happy in hitting right; and I am much mistaken if, amongst the writings of my time, the worst are not those which have most gained the popular applause.

Things seem greater by imagination than they are in effect.

I study myself more than any other subject. That is my metaphysics, that is my physics.

What a man hates, he takes seriously.

There is nothing which so poisons princes as flattery, nor anything whereby wicked men more easily obtain credit and favor with them.

If I can, I shall keep my death from saying anything that my life has not already said.

If you want it to be so, history can be a waste of time; it can also be, if you want it to be so, a study bearing fruit beyond price.