Benefits should be conferred gradually; and in that way they will taste better.

The people resemble a wild beast, which, naturally fierce and accustomed to live in the woods, has been brought up, as it were, in a prison and in servitude, and having by accident got its liberty, not being accustomed to search for its food, and not knowing where to conceal itself, easily becomes the prey of the first who seeks to incarcerate it again.

Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good.

And above all you ought to guard against leading an army to fight which is afraid or which is not confident of victory. For the greatest sign of an impending loss is when one does not believe one can win.

The wish to acquire more is admittedly a very natural and common thing; and when men succeed in this they are always praised rather than condemned. But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes.

One never finds anything perfectly pure and ... exempt from danger.

Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.