The giving of riches and honors to a wicked man is like giving strong wine to him that hath a fever.

Alexander esteemed it more kingly to govern himself than to conquer his enemies.

Blinded as they are to their true character by self-love, every man is his own first and chiefest flatterer, prepared, therefore, to welcome the flatterer from the outside, who only comes confirming the verdict of the flatterer within.

It is not histories I am writing, but lives; and in the most glorious deeds there is not always an indication of virtue or vice, indeed a small thing like a phrase or a jest often makes a greater revelation of a character than battles where thousands die.

I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.

What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

We ought to regard books as we do sweetmeats, not wholly to aim at the pleasantest, but chiefly to respect the wholesomest; not forbidding either, but approving the latter most.