26 Notable Quotes By Vittorio Alfieri
First thoughts are not always the best.
Often the test of courage becomes rather to live than to die.
Disgrace does not consist in the punishment, but in the crime.
Often the test of courage is not to die but to live.
Deep vengeance is the daughter of deep silence.
Necessity inspires the fatal thought.
Ofttimes the test of courage becomes rather to live than to die.
A usurper always distrusts the whole world.
I had seen the great, but I had not seen the small.
For 'tis impossible Hate to return with love.
Original thoughts can be understood only in virtue of the unoriginal elements which they contain.
The talent of making friends is not equal to the talent of doing without them.
For one to grasp, whatever be his object, sov'reign power ... is an act of perilous presumption.
Liars are always most disposed to swear.
Sometimes blood, for the sake of sparing it, is spilled.
The time for hope is gone, and come for fear.
Where there are laws, he who has not broken them need not tremble.
Heaven takes care that no man secures happiness by crime.
Joy, when it is excessive, overcomes as much as grief.
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.
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.
A conquering king will banish from his breast hatred towards one whom he no longer fears.
That blood which thou hast spill'd, should join you closely in an eternal bond.
To err is human; but contrition felt for the crime distinguishes the virtuous from the wicked.
The guilty is he who meditates a crime; the punishment is his who lays the plot.
If ardent passions push not men on to lofty enterprise, calm wisdom never will accomplish it.