There will be vice as long as there are men.

It is always easier to requite an injury than a service: gratitude is a burden, but revenge is found to pay.

Valor is of no service, chance rules all, and the bravest often fall by the hands of cowards.

The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.

Great empires are not maintained by timidity.

There can never be a complete confidence in a power which is excessive.