Vittorio Alfieri Quotes

#1. 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.

Vittorio Alfieri

#2. I had seen the great, but I had not seen the small.

Vittorio Alfieri

#3. Liars are always most disposed to swear.

Vittorio Alfieri

#4. If ardent passions push not men on to lofty enterprise, calm wisdom never will accomplish it.

Vittorio Alfieri

#5. For 'tis impossible Hate to return with love.

Vittorio Alfieri

#6. The guilty is he who meditates a crime; the punishment is his who lays the plot.

Vittorio Alfieri

#7. The talent of making friends is not equal to the talent of doing without them.

Vittorio Alfieri

#8. Joy, when it is excessive, overcomes as much as grief.

Vittorio Alfieri

#9. A conquering king will banish from his breast hatred towards one whom he no longer fears.

Vittorio Alfieri

#10. That blood which thou hast spill'd, should join you closely in an eternal bond.

Vittorio Alfieri

#11. Often the test of courage becomes rather to live than to die.

Vittorio Alfieri

#12. First thoughts are not always the best.

Vittorio Alfieri

#13. Sometimes blood, for the sake of sparing it, is spilled.

Vittorio Alfieri

#14. The time for hope is gone, and come for fear.

Vittorio Alfieri

#15. Necessity inspires the fatal thought.

Vittorio Alfieri

#16. For one to grasp, whatever be his object, sov'reign power ... is an act of perilous presumption.

Vittorio Alfieri

#17. Alas, 'tis force alone that can compel to virtuous actions a degenerate people.

Vittorio Alfieri

#18. Joy surfeited turns to sorrow.

Vittorio Alfieri

#19. Where there are laws, he who has not broken them need not tremble.

Vittorio Alfieri

#20. Heaven takes care that no man secures happiness by crime.

Vittorio Alfieri

#21. Deep vengeance is the daughter of deep silence.

Vittorio Alfieri

#22. To err is human; but contrition felt for the crime distinguishes the virtuous from the wicked.

Vittorio Alfieri

#23. Original thoughts can be understood only in virtue of the unoriginal elements which they contain.

Vittorio Alfieri

#24. Disgrace does not consist in the punishment, but in the crime.

Vittorio Alfieri

#25. A usurper always distrusts the whole world.

Vittorio Alfieri

#26. Often the test of courage is not to die but to live.

Vittorio Alfieri