“No wickedness proceeds on any grounds of reason.”

Woe to the conquered.

From abundance springs safety.

Under the influence of fear, which always leads men to take a pessimistic view of things, they magnified their enemies’ resources, and minimized their own.

Adversity makes men remember God.

There is nothing that is more often clothed in an attractive garb than a false creed.

Prosperity engenders sloth.

Men are seldom blessed with good fortune and good sense at the same time.

The troubles which have come upon us always seem more serious than those which are only threatening.

A certain peace is better and safer than a victory in prospect; the former is at your own disposal, the latter depends upon the gods.

We can endure neither our vices nor their cure.

In grave difficulties, and with little hope, the boldest measures are the safest.

This was the Athenians’ war against the King of Macedon, a war of words. Words are the only weapons the Athenians have left.

When Tarquin the Proud was asked what was the best mode of governing a conquered city, he replied only by beating down with his staff all the tallest poppies in his garden.

Never is work without reward, or reward without work.

Valor is the soldier’s adornment.

He is truly a man who will not permit himself to be unduly elated when fortune’s breeze is favorable, or cast down when it is adverse.

Cruel men are the greatest lovers of Mercy, avaricious men of generosity, and proud men of humility; that is to say, in other, not in themselves.

While people are struggling unhappily in the cities against the cruel authorities, a waterfall happily and cheerfully flows in the nature; there is happiness only if there is freedom!

Doubts are more cruel than the worst of truths.

Doubts are more cruel than the worst of truths. It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do. A lover whose passion is extreme loves even the faults of the beloved.

The philosopher Elaine Scarry has observed that “beauty always takes place in the particular.” Cruelty, on the other hand, prefers abstraction.

Cruelty depends on an understanding of cruelty, and the ability to choose against it. Or to choose to ignore it.

Cruelty in the theatre is unrelenting decisiveness, diligence, strictness.

I seem to you cruel and too much addicted to gluttony, when I beat my cook for sending up a bad dinner. If that appears to you too trifling a cause, say for what cause you would have a cook flogged.