Zitat des Tages von Francesco Guicciardini:
Ambition is not in itself an evil; nor is he to be condemned whose spirit prompts him to seek fame by worthy and honourable ways.
Affairs that depend on many rarely succeed.
Since there is nothing so well worth having as friends, never lose a chance to make them.
Waste no time with revolutions that do not remove the causes of your complaints but simply change the faces of those in charge.
Conspiracies, since they cannot be engaged in without the fellowship of others, are for that reason most perilous; for as most men are either fools or knaves, we run excessive risk in making such folk our companions.
The return we reap from generous actions is not always evident.
Like other men, I have sought honours and preferment, and often have obtained them beyond my wishes or hopes. Yet never have I found in them that content which I had figured beforehand in my mind. A strong reason, if we well consider it, why we should disencumber ourselves of vain desires.
Let no one trust so entirely to natural prudence as to persuade himself that it will suffice to guide him without help from experience.