Riches may enable us to confer favours, but to confer them with propriety and grace requires a something that riches cannot give.

Rats and conquerors must expect no mercy in misfortune.

Royal favorites are often obliged to carry their complaisance farther than they meant. They live for their master's pleasure and they die for his convenience.

Power will intoxicate the best hearts, as wine the strongest heads. No man is wise enough, nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power.