So obscure are the greatest events, as some take for granted any hearsay, whatever its source, others turn truth into falsehood, and both errors find encouragement with posterity.
Seek to make a person blush for their guilt rather than shed their blood.
Cruelty is fed, not weakened, by tears.
Formerly we suffered from crimes; now we suffer from laws.
In the struggle between those seeking power there is no middle course.
The unknown always passes for the marvellous.
Style, like the human body, is specially beautiful when the veins are not prominent and the bones cannot be counted.
Custom adapts itself to expediency.
Even the bravest men are frightened by sudden terrors.
Posterity gives every man his true value.
War will of itself discover and lay open the hidden and rankling wounds of the victorious party.
The lust of fame is the last that a wise man shakes off.
More faults are often committed while we are trying to oblige than while we are giving offense.
Even honor and virtue make enemies, condemning, as they do, their opposites by too close a contrast.
Legions and fleets are not such sure bulwarks of imperial power as a numerous family.
Then there is the usual scene when lovers are excited with each other, quarrels, entreaties, reproaches, and then fondling reconcilement.
Such being the happiness of the times, that you may think as you wish, and speak as you think.
Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth.
This I hold to be the chief office of history, to rescue virtuous actions from the oblivion to which a want of records would consign them, and that men should feel a dread of being considered infamous in the opinions of posterity, from their depraved expressions and base actions.
Neglected, calumny soon expires, show that you are hurt, and you give it the appearance of truth.