The sufferings that fate inflicts on us should be borne with patience, what enemies inflict with manly courage.

The peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learned to cultivate the olive and the vine.

With reference to the narrative of events, far from permitting myself to derive it from the first source that came to hand, I did not even trust my own impressions, but it rests partly on what I saw myself, partly on what others saw for me, the accuracy of the report always being tried by the most severe and detailed tests possible. My conclusions have cost me some labour from the want of coincidence between accounts of the same occurrences by different eye-witnesses, arising sometimes from imperfect memory, sometimes from undue partiality for one side or the other.

The absence of romance from my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its interest; but if it be judged useful by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it, I shall be content. In fine, I have written my work, not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time.

Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.

So little trouble do men take in the search after truth; so readily do they accept whatever comes first to hand.

It is useless to attack men who could not be controlled even if conquered, while failure would leave us in an even worse position.