Great empires are not maintained by timidity.
Many who seem to be struggling with adversity are happy; many, amid great affluence, are utterly miserable.
No one would have doubted his ability to reign had he never been emperor.
Valor is the contempt of death and pain.
In all things there is a law of cycles.
Things are not to be judged good or bad merely because the public think so.
So as you go into battle, remember your ancestors and remember your descendants.
When the State is corrupt, then the laws are most multiplied.
The sciences throw an inexpressible grace over our compositions, even where they are not immediately concerned; as their effects are discernible where we least expect to find them.
Once killing starts, it is difficult to draw the line.
So true is it that all transactions of preeminent importance are wrapt in doubt and obscurity; while some hold for certain facts the most precarious hearsays, others turn facts into falsehood; and both are exaggerated by posterity.
Every great example of punishment has in it some injustice, but the suffering individual is compensated by the public good.
Benefits received are a delight to us as long as we think we can requite them; when that possibility is far exceeded, they are repaid with hatred instead of gratitude.
By general consent, he would have been capable of ruling, had he not ruled.
Indeed, the crowning proof of their valour and their strength is that they keep up their superiority without harm to others.
No one in Germany laughs at vice, nor do they call it the fashion to corrupt and to be corrupted.
Valor is of no service, chance rules all, and the bravest often fall by the hands of cowards.
All things atrocious and shameless flock from all parts to Rome.
Noble character is best appreciated in those ages in which it can most readily develop.
A bitter jest, when it comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind it.