“Ambition breaks the ties of blood, and forgets the obligations of gratitude.”

To have the same desires and the same aversion is assuredly a firm bond of friendship.

Get good counsel before you begin; and when you have decided, act promptly.

Ambition drove many men to become false; to have one thought locked in the breast, another ready on the tongue.

It is sweet to surve one country by deeds, and it is not absurd to surve her by words.

Enough words, little wisdom.

Everything that rises sets, and everything that grows, grows old.

To someone seeking power, the poorest man is the most useful.

No grief reaches the dead.

By union the smallest states thrive. By discord the greatest are destroyed.

Just to stir things up seemed a great reward in itself.

All who consult on doubtful matters, should be void of hatred, friendship, anger, and pity.

When the prizes fall to the lot of the wicked, you will not find many who are virtuous for virtue’s sake.

By the wicked the good conduct of others is always dreaded.

Deliberate before you begin; but, having carefully done so, execute with vigour.

The glory of wealth and of beauty is fleeting and frail; virtue is illustrious and everlasting.

It is impossible that there should be so much providence in the last details, and none in the first principles. Then the arts of prophecy and of healing, which are part of the cosmos, come of the good providence of the Gods.

Doing what you love isn’t a priviledge; it’s an obligation.

Being imposes some kind of obligation to find out what’s going on.

I never talk about what I’m writing about currently, never. It’s private work on your own, no need or obligation to talk about it. Writers are made into performers these days, including myself, but there are some instances in which I will not perform.

There is a moral obligation, I think, not to ally oneself with power against the powerless.

Men have been obliged to make for themselves a notion of what religion is, long before the science of religions started its methodical comparisons.

A man must not deny his manifest abilities, for that is to evade his obligations.

I’m very much a Christian in ideals and ethics, especially in terms of belief in fairness, a deep set obligation to others, and the virtues of charity, tolerance and generosity that we associate with traditional Christian teaching.

I think that man has a fundamental obligation to extract from himself and from the earth all that it can give; and this obligation is all the more imperative that we are absolutely ignorant of what limits – they may still be very distant – God has imposed on our natural understanding and power.