Now the chief cause of success or the reverse in all matters is the form of a state's constitution; for springing from this, as from a...

Death of Hector in the Iliad: 'Tis true I perish, yet I perish great: Yet in a mighty deed I shall expire, Let future ages hear it, and...

And surely to conquer one's enemies by generosity and equity is of far higher service than any victory in the field; for to arms the...

The unlooked-for calamity of the Aetolians was a lesson to mankind never to discuss the future as if it were the present, or to have any...

“No one can corrupt a wise man with a bribe, though it is possible that he may with eloquence." Ammianus Marcellinus. The Roman History...

Julian the Apostate, emperor of Rome, "having found by experience that no wild beasts are so hostile to men as Christian sects in general...

generally all evils which are distant most powerfully alarm men's minds. Caesar, Julius. Caesar's Commentaries The Conquest of Gaul & The...

The immortal gods are wont to allow those persons whom they wish to punish for their guilt sometimes a greater prosperity and longer...

So may I be courteous to men, faithful to friends, True to my God, a fragrance in the path I trod. Twain, Mark. Autobiography of Mark...

you can’t be successfully funny if you show that you are afraid of it. Twain, Mark. Autobiography of Mark Twain: The Complete and...

Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Twain, Mark....

Temperaments are born, not made, and they cannot be changed, by time, nor training, nor by any other force. Twain, Mark. Autobiography of...

I had learned that it is not wise to keep the fire going under a slander unless you can get some large advantage out of keeping it alive....

a maxim of mine that whenever a man preferred being fed by any other man to starving in independence he ought to be shot. Twain, Mark....

If any woman is too fond of drinking wine, she definitely closes the door on all the virtues and opens it to all kinds of mischief....

What good does education do us? It makes our characters more polished; it does not make them better. Maximus, Valerius. Valerius Maximus,...

A man who longs for nothing obviously has everything, and even more securely than a man who owns every possession. Maximus, Valerius....

None of these things, I surmise, can gain a man happiness unless that man, whose achievements are seemingly so great, should at the same...

An association of vices will reduce us more than the sword. Paine, Thomas. Thomas Paine: Collected Writings. Eric Foner, ed. Library of...

An army in a city can never be a conquering army. Paine, Thomas. Thomas Paine: Collected Writings. Eric Foner, ed. Library of America....

Death is not the monarch of the dead, but of the dying. The moment he obtains a conquest he loses a subject, and, like the foolish King...

“There are men too, who have not virtue enough to be angry...He who dares not offend cannot be honest.” Paine, Thomas. Thomas Paine:...

“…the honesty of the press is as great an object to society as the freedom of it.” Paine, Thomas. Thomas Paine: Collected Writings. Eric...

The reformation was preceded by the discovery of America, as if the Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the persecuted in...