To die for one's country is such a worthy fate that all compete for so beautiful a death.

It is the guilt, not the scaffold, which constitutes the shame.

Desire increases when fulfillment is postponed.

The universe has no prince or king that it [Rome] would consider equal to its humblest citizen.

After having won a scepter, few are so generous as to disdain the pleasures of ruling.

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.

The subject of a good tragedy must not be realistic.