When the state is most corrupt, then the laws are most multiplied.
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.
Custom adapts itself to expediency.
To show resentment at a reproach is to acknowledge that one may have deserved it.
Abuse if you slight it, will gradually die away; but if you show yourself irritated, you will be thought to have deserved it.
When men are full of envy they disparage everything, whether it be good or bad.
No one would have doubted his ability to reign had he never been emperor.
To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a wilderness, they call it peace.
Those in supreme power always suspect and hate their next heir.
A shocking crime was committed on the unscrupulous initiative of few individuals, with the blessing of more, and amid the passive acquiescence of all.
It belongs to human nature to hate those you have injured.
Old things are always in good repute, present things in disfavor.
Love of fame is the last thing even learned men can bear to be parted from.
Prosperity is the measure or touchstone of virtue, for it is less difficult to bear misfortune than to remain uncorrupted by pleasure.