There is nothing that fear or hope does not make men believe.

Great men undertake great things because they are great; fools, because they think them easy

More are taken in by hope than by cunning

The greatest evil which fortune can inflict on men is to endow them with small talents and great ambition.

Men sometimes feel injured by praise because it assigns a limit to their merit; few people are modest enough not to take offence that one appreciates them.

There is nothing that fear and hope does not permit men to do.