Men are always wicked at bottom unless they are made good by some compulsion.

The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.

Speaking generally, men are ungrateful, fickle, hypocritical, fearful odanger and covetous ogain.

All the States and Governments by which men are or ever have been ruled, have been and are either Republics or Princedoms.

Men are of three different capacities: one understands intuitively; another understands so far as it is explained; and a third understands neither of himself nor by explanation. The first is excellent, the second, commendable, and the third, altogether useless.

Men are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer to be tricked.

Many have dreamed up republics and principalities that have never in truth been known to exist; the gulf between how one should live and how one does live is so wide that a man who neglects what is actually done for what should be done learns the way to self-destruction rather than self-preservation.

So long as the great majority of men are not deprived of either property or honor, they are satisfied.

A wise man will see to it that his acts always seem voluntary and not done by compulsion, however much he may be compelled by necessity.