An example is often a deceptive mirror, and the order of destiny, so troubling to our thoughts, is not always found written in things past.

Danger breeds best on too much confidence.

A true king is neither husband nor father; he considers his throne and nothing else.

I see, I know, I believe, I am undeceived.

Brave men are brave from the very first.

My reason, it's true, controls my feelings, but whatever its authority, it doesn't rule them so much as tyrannize them.

In the service of Caesar, everything is legitimate.

I agree to, or rather aspire to, my doom.

A first impulse was never a crime.

My sweetest hope is to lose hope.

How delicious is pleasure after torment!

It is a crime against the State to be powerful enough to commit one.

To die for one's country is such a worthy fate that all compete for so beautiful a death.

They who overcome their desires once can overcome them always.

I would not like a king who could obey.

I have deserved neither so much honor or so much disgrace.

He who allows me to rule is in fact my master.

He who plays advisor is no longer ambassador.

It takes good memory to keep up a lie.

Severity is allowable where gentleness has no effect.

He who is hated by all can not expect to live long.

As great as kings may be, they are what we are: they can err like other men.

It is the crime not the scaffold which is the disgrace.

Clemency is the noblest trait which can reveal a true monarch to the world.

In recounting our woes, we often soothe them.

Flee an enemy who knows your weakness.

One ought to have a good memory when he has told a lie.