They have plundered the world, stripping naked the land in their hunger… they are driven by greed, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poor… They ravage, they slaughter, they seize by false pretenses, and all of this they hail as the construction of empire. And when in their wake nothing remains but a desert, they call that peace.

The lust of fame is the last that a wise man shakes off.

All bodies are slow in growth but rapid in decay.

Old things are always in good repute, present things in disfavor.

When the State is corrupt, then the laws are most multiplied.

Who the first inhabitants of Britain were, whether natives or immigrants, remains obscure; one must remember we are dealing with barbarians.

Flattery labors under the odious charge of servility.