“No one would have doubted his ability to reign had he never been emperor.”

The lust of fame is the last that a wise man shakes off.

Reckless adventure is the fool’s hazard.

Crime, once exposed, has no refuge but in audacity.

The desire for glory clings even to the best men longer than any other passion.

Posterity will pay everyone their due.

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.

The most detestable race of enemies are flatterers.

Once killing starts, it is difficult to draw the line.

I am my nearest neighbour.

The worst hatred is that of relatives.

Solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant. They make a wilderness and they call it peace.

To rob, to ravage, to murder, in their imposing language, are the arts of civil policy. When they have made the world a solitude, they call it peace.

The brave and bold persist even against fortune; the timid and cowardly rush to despair though fear alone.

They make a desert and call it peace.

It is of eloquence as of a flame; it requires matter to feed it, and motion to excite it; and it brightens as it burns.

An eminent reputation is as dangerous as a bad one.

As for us, during twenty years’ reign, we have known much bitterness.

For it is but usurpation in him to save, as their rightful lord, the lives of men over whom he has no title to reign.

Just give your natural enthusiasm free reign and say whatever comes into your head.

Whether slaves or free, they reign, because their empire is that of the affections.

The king reigns but does not govern.

The supremacy of expediency is being refuted by time and truth.

The attempt is to kill the false “I”, so that the real “I”, the Lord, will reign. “I the Lord thy God am a jealous God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” say the Hebrew scriptures.