Close alliances with despots are never safe for free states.
To remind a man of the good turns you have done him is very much like a reproach.
You cannot have a proud and chivalrous spirit if your conduct is mean and paltry; for whatever a man's actions are, such must be his spirit.
Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.
A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true.
There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies as against despots - suspicion.