Nothing is harder to direct than a man in prosperity; nothing more easily managed that one is adversity.

Fate, however, is to all appearance more unavoidable than unexpected.

The present offers itself to our touch for only an instant of time and then eludes the senses.

Let a prince be guarded with soldiers, attended by councillors, and shut up in forts; yet if his thoughts disturb him, he is miserable.

Character is long-standing habit.

So long as he was personally present, [Alcibiades] had the perfect mastery of his political adversaries; calumny only succeeded in his absence.

The talkative listen to no one, for they are ever speaking. And the first evil that attends those who know not to be silent is that they hear nothing.