Actions are visible, though motives are secret.

Extended empires are like expanded gold, exchanging solid strength for feeble splendor.

Avarice is generally the last passion of those lives of which the first part has been squandered in pleasure, and the second devoted to ambition. He that sinks under the fatigue of getting wealth, lulls his age with the milder business of saving it

I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave, and success and miscarriage are empty sounds: I therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquillity, having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise.

What is easy is seldom excellent.

Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven't courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.

An age that melts in unperceiv'd decay, And glides in modest innocence away.