Alas, ’tis force alone that can compel to virtuous actions a degenerate people.
The talent of making friends is not equal to the talent of doing without them.
Original thoughts can be understood only in virtue of the unoriginal elements which they contain.
The guilty is he who meditates a crime; the punishment is his who lays the plot.
To err is human; but contrition felt for the crime distinguishes the virtuous from the wicked.
Joy surfeited turns to sorrow.
Heaven takes care that no man secures happiness by crime.
I had seen the great, but I had not seen the small.
The time for hope is gone, and come for fear.
A conquering king will banish from his breast hatred towards one whom he no longer fears.
That blood which thou hast spill’d, should join you closely in an eternal bond.
Joy, when it is excessive, overcomes as much as grief.
Sometimes blood, for the sake of sparing it, is spilled.
Thou knowest not the endless artifices of a court. Invented crimes are often there alleged; but real ones, and those especially, which may offend his pride, are oftentimes not to a king divulged.
If ardent passions push not men on to lofty enterprise, calm wisdom never will accomplish it.
Necessity inspires the fatal thought.
A usurper always distrusts the whole world.
Where there are laws, he who has not broken them need not tremble.
For ’tis impossible Hate to return with love.
Deep vengeance is the daughter of deep silence.