The desire of glory is the last infirmity cast off even by the wise.

Liberty is given by nature even to mute animals.

All bodies are slow in growth but rapid in decay.

Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit, because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure

The solitude lends much appeal, because a sea without a harbour surrounds it. Even a modest boat can find few anchorage, and nobody can go ashore unnoticed by the guards. Its winter is mild because it is enclosed by a range of mountains which keeps out the fierce temperature; its summer is unequal. The open sea is very pleasant and it has a view of a beautiful bay.

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.

In all things there is a law of cycles.