How delicious is pleasure after torment!

A monarch must sometimes rule even himself: he who wants everything must risk very little.

Treachery is noble when aimed at tyranny.

Ambition displeases when it has been sated ... having reached the peak, it aspires to descend.

Ambition becomes displeasing when it is once satiated; there is a reaction; and as our spirit, till our last sigh, is always aiming toward some object, it falls back on itself, having nothing else on which to rest; and having reached the summit, it longs to descend.

Have others fear you, and I will have no fear.

Your virtue raises your glory above your crime.