Nothing more aggravates ill success than the near approach of good.
Consider what each soil will bear, and what each refuses
That man is the most loyal who aims at the noblest motive, and that motive the public good.
Do not yield to misfortunes, but advance more boldly to meet them, as your fortune permits you.
Others may fashion more smoothly images of bronze (I for one believe it), evoke living faces from marble, plead causes better, trace with a wand the wanderings of the heavens and foretell the rising of stars. But you, Roman, remember to rule the peoples with power (these will be your arts); impose the habit of peace, spare the vanquished and war down the proud!
If only Jupiter would restore me those bygone years.
All things deteriorate in time.
Italy is divided between us and them, rich and poor, north and south, young and old, employed and unemployed.
Man becomes greater in proportion to knowing himself and his faculties. Let him become conscious of what he is and he will soon also learn what he should be.
Usually, to be sure, man considers only the stubble field of transitoriness and overlooks the full granaries of the past, wherein he had salvaged once and for all his deeds, his joys and also his sufferings. Nothing can be undone, and nothing can be done away with. I should say having been is the surest kind of being.
Before every great opportunity God gave me a great trial.