To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.

To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.

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

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

The crowns of kings do not prevent those who wear them from being tormented sometimes by violent headaches.

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.

The measure of a man is the way he bears up under misfortune.