My star was fading, I felt the reins slipping out of my grasp, and could do nothing to stop it.

Circumstances-what are circumstances? I make circumstances

All religions have been made by men.

Strangers are just friends waiting to happen. To become a good man, one must have faithful friends, or outright enemies.

Music, of all the liberal arts, has the greatest influence over the passions, and it is that to which the legislator ought to give the greatest encouragement.

When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.

A prince should suspect everything.