“Close alliances with despots are never safe for free states.”

The more able a man is, if he make ill use of his abilities, the more dangerous will he be to the commonwealth.

To remind a man of the good turns you have done him is very much like a reproach.

The best protection for the people is not necessarily to believe everything people tell them.

What a man wishes, he will believe.

Whatever shall be to the advantage of all, may that prevail!

There is a great deal of wishful thinking in such cases it is the easiest thing of all to deceive ones self.

Every advantage in the past is judged in the light of the final issue.

Small opportunities often presage great enterprises.

One believes in what one wants to believe in.

Success has a great tendency to conceal and throw a veil over the evil deeds of men.

He who confers a favor should at once forget it, if he is not to show a sordid ungenerous spirit. To remind a man of a kindness conferred and to talk of it, is little different from reproach.

Good fortune is the greatest of blessings, but good counsel comes next, and the lack of it destroys the other also.

Everything great is not always good, but all good things, are great.

It is the natural disposition of all men to listen with pleasure to abuse and slander of their neighbour, and to hear with impatience those who utter praises of themselves.

Nothing is more easy than to deceive one’s self, as our affections are subtle persuaders.

It is impossible for men engaged in low and groveling pursuits to have noble and generous sentiments. A man’s thought must always follow his employment.

Do not feel safe. The poet remembers. You can kill one, but another is born. The words are written down, the deed, the date.

Letting go of control, that’s actually when you’re safe.

For they had learned that true safety was to be found in long previous training, and not in eloquent exhortations uttered when they were going into action.

One can give advice comfortably from a safe port.

Our safety is not in blindness, but in facing our dangers.

It is easy to give advice from a port of safety.

Quick decisions are unsafe decisions.

The game of life looks cheerful when one carries a treasure safe in his heart.