Vittorio Alfieri
Ofttimes the test of courage becomes rather to live than to die.Collection: Courage
Often the test of courage is not to die but to live.Collection: Courage
Deep vengeance is the daughter of deep silence.
Liars are always most disposed to swear.
First thoughts are not always the best.
To err is human; but contrition felt for the crime distinguishes the virtuous from the wicked.
A usurper always distrusts the whole world.
Where there are laws, he who has not broken them need not tremble.
Disgrace does not consist in the punishment, but in the crime.
Heaven takes care that no man secures happiness by crime.
Necessity inspires the fatal thought.Collection: Inspire
The talent of making friends is not equal to the talent of doing without them.Collection: Friends
Joy surfeited turns to sorrow.Collection: Joy
If ardent passions push not men on to lofty enterprise, calm wisdom never will accomplish it.Collection: Passion
Thou knowest not the endless artifices of a court. Invented crimes are often there alleged; but real ones, and those especially, which may offend his pride, are oftentimes not to a king divulged.Collection: Kings
The guilty is he who meditates a crime; the punishment is his who lays the plot.Collection: Punishment
Original thoughts can be understood only in virtue of the unoriginal elements which they contain.Collection: Original Thought
A conquering king will banish from his breast hatred towards one whom he no longer fears.Collection: Kings
The time for hope is gone, and come for fear.Collection: Gone
Joy, when it is excessive, overcomes as much as grief.Collection: Grief
For one to grasp, whatever be his object, sov'reign power ... is an act of perilous presumption.Collection: Kings
I had seen the great, but I had not seen the small.Collection: Change
That blood which thou hast spill'd, should join you closely in an eternal bond.Collection: Blood
There is a silence, the child of love, which expresses everything, and proclaims more loudly than the tongue is able to do; there are movements that are involuntary proofs of what the soul feels.Collection: Children
Sometimes blood, for the sake of sparing it, is spilled.Collection: Blood
Alas, 'tis force alone that can compel to virtuous actions a degenerate people.Collection: People
For 'tis impossible Hate to return with love.Collection: Love