Every recreant who proved his timidity in the hour of danger, was afterwards boldest in words and tongue.

Whatever is unknown is magnified.

Following Emporer Nero's command, "Let the Christians be exterminated!:" . . . they [the Christians] were made the subjects of sport; they were covered with the hides of wild beasts and worried to death by dogs, or nailed to crosses or set fire to, and when the day waned, burned to serve for the evening lights.

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.

Rumor is not always wrong

Other men have acquired fame by industry, but this man by indolence.

Reason and calm judgment, the qualities specially belonging to a leader.