It is better to have a lion at the head of an army of sheep than a sheep at the head of an army of lions. - Daniel Defoe

How frequently, in the course of our lives, the evil which in itself we seek most to shun, and which, when we are fallen into, is the most dreadful to us, is oftentimes the very means or door of our deliverance, by which alone we can be raised again from the affliction we are fallen into.

Nature has left this tincture in the blood,
That all men would be tyrants if they could.

We never see the true state of our condition till it is illustrated to us by its contraries, nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the want of it.