Let no one trust so entirely to natural prudence as to persuade himself that it will suffice to guide him without help from experience.

Since there is nothing so well worth having as friends, never lose a chance to make them.

Few revolutions succeed, and when they do, you often discover they did not gain what you hoped for, and you condemn yourself to perpetual fear, as the parties you defeated may always regain power and work for your ruin.

The affairs of this world are so shifting and depend on so many accidents, that it is hard to form any judgment concerning the future; nay, we see from experience that the forecasts even of the wise almost always turn out false.

The return we reap from generous actions is not always evident.

The return we reap from generous actions is not always evident.

Waste no time with revolutions that do not remove the causes of your complaints but simply change the faces of those in charge.

Conspiracies, since they cannot be engaged in without the fellowship of others, are for that reason most perilous; for as most men are either fools or knaves, we run excessive risk in making such folk our companions.