Kings play at war unfairly with republics; they can only lose some earth, and some creatures they value as little, while republics lose in every soldier a part of themselves.

The tomb is the pedestal of greatness. I make a distinction between God's great and the king's great.

A mercantile democracy may govern long and widely; a mercantile aristocracy cannot stand.

Those who in living fill the smallest space, In death have often left the greatest void.

When the mind loses its feeling for elegance, it grows corrupt and groveling, and seeks in the crowd what ought to be found at home.

Immoderate power, like other intemperance, leaves the progeny weaker and weaker, until nature as in compassion covers it with her mantle and it is seen no more.

In honest truth, a name given to a man is no better than a skin given to him; what is not natively his own falls off and comes to nothing.