A good tale evil told were better untold, and an evil take well told need none other solicitor.

Who does more earnestly long for a change than he who is uneasy in his present circumstances? And who run to create confusions with so desperate a boldness as those who have nothing to lose, hope to gain by them?

And it will fall out as in a complication of diseases, that by applying a remedy to one sore, you will provoke another; and that which removes the one ill symptom produces others.

To gold and silver nature hath given no use that we may not well lack.

I would uphold the law if for no other reason but to protect myself.

Most people know nothing about learning; many despise it. Dummies reject as too hard whatever is not dumb.

In the first place, most princes apply themselves to the arts of war, in which I have neither ability nor interest, instead of to the good arts of peace. They are generally more set on acquiring new kingdoms by hook or by crook than on governing well those that they already have.