“We are corrupted by good fortune. [Lat., Felicitate corrumpimur.]”

Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.

In a state where corruption abounds, laws must be very numerous.

The word liberty has been falsely used by persons who, being degenerately profligate in private life, and mischievous in public, had no hope left but in fomenting discord.

The lust for power, for dominating others, inflames the heart more than any other passion.

Great empires are not maintained by timidity.

Flattery labors under the odious charge of servility.

Cruelty is fed, not weakened, by tears.

Bodies are slow of growth, but are rapid in their dissolution. [Lat., Corpora lente augescent, cito extinguuntur.]

Secure against the designs of men, secure against the malignity of the Gods, they have accomplished a thing of infinite difficulty; that to them nothing remains even to be wished.

Power won by crime no one ever yet turned to a good purpose.

The unknown always passes for the marvellous.

It is less difficult to bear misfortunes than to remain uncorrupted by pleasure.

He (Tiberius) was wont to mock at the arts of physicians, and at those who, after thirty years of age, needed counsel as to what was good or bad for their bodies.

More faults are often committed while we are trying to oblige than while we are giving offense.

The love of dominion is the most engrossing passion.

All inconsiderate enterprises are impetuous at first, but soon lanquish. [Lat., Omnia inconsulti impetus coepta, initiis valida, spatio languescunt.]

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

In an age that is utterly corrupt, the best policy is to do as others do.

If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power…power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

It is not power that corrupts but fear.

It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.

There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Great men are almost always bad men.