It is much better to tempt fortune where it can favor you than to see your certain ruin by not tempting it.

Fear is secured by a dread of punishment.

It has always been the opinion and judgment of wise men that nothing can be so uncertain as fame or power not founded on its own strength.

Good order makes men bold, and confusion, cowards.

In order not to annul our free will, I judge it true that Fortune may be mistress of one half our actions but then even she leaves the other half, or almost, under our control.

He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss.

Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please.