There is nothing so difficult or so dangerous as to undertake to change the order of things.

It may be observed, that provinces amid the vicissitudes to which they are subject, pass from order into confusion, and afterward recur to a state of order again; for the nature of mundane affairs not allowing them to continue in an even course, when they have arrived at their greatest perfection, they soon begin to decline.

The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.

They have not any difficulties on the way up because they fly, but they have many when they reach the summit.

Thus it happens in matters of state; for knowing afar off (which it is only given a prudent man to do) the evils that are brewing, they are easily cured. But when, for want of such knowledge, they are allowed to grow so that everyone can recognize them, there is no longer any remedy to be found.

Everyone who wants to know what will happen ought to examine what has happened: everything in this world in any epoch has their replicas in antiquity.

One must be a fox to recognize traps and a lion to frighten wolves