To know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasures, we must go to those who are seeking it; the pains of power are re… - Charles Caleb Colton

With the offspring of genius, the law of parturition is reversed; the throes are in the conception, the pleasure in the birth.

The first consideration with a knave, is how to help himself, and the second, how to do it, with an appearance of helping you. Dionysius the tyrant, stripped the statue of Jupiter Olympius, of a robe of massy gold, and substituted a cloak of wool, saying, gold is too cold in winter, and too heavy in summer; — It behoves us to take care of Jupiter

Cicero observed to a degenerate patrician, "I am the first of my family, but you are the last of yours" And since his time, those who value themselves merely on their ancestry, have been compared to potatoes, all that is good of them is under the ground.