Let us be true: this is the highest maxim of art and of life, the secret of eloquence and of virtue, and of all moral authority. – Henri Frederic Amiel
Pain hardens, and great pain hardens greatly, whatever the comforters say, and suffering does not ennoble, though it may occasionally lend a certain rigid dignity of manner to the suffering frame. – Antonia S. Byatt
To understand the nature of the people one must be a prince, and to understand the nature of the prince, one must be of the people. – Niccolo Machiavelli
