Cosimo de Medici

"I have not the least doubt that I shall astonish you all."

"Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver."

"Without knowledge, life is not much more than the life of an animal."

"We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends."

"The man who has a conscience will beat a drum before he commits any base deed."

"It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom."

"I desire to go to Hell and not to Heaven, in order that I may enjoy the company of Popes, Kings, and Princes."

"The youth of a nation are the trustees of posterity."

"Patience is the virtue of the asses."

"Men are so simple and so ready to obey."

"Nothing more enhances authority than silence."

"I desire the things that will be useful to me in my life."

"Friendship is the one thing money cannot buy."

"Art must be experienced as an act of liberation."

"Power resides only in the moment of transition from a past to a new state."

"It is forbidden to forbid what cannot be forbidden."

"A man is known by the company he keeps."

"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions."

"When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you."

"Excellence is not a skill, it's an attitude."

"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens."

"The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have."

"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."

"To endure is greater than to dare."

"Three things are hard in the world: steel, a diamond, and to know oneself."

"A wise man hears one word and understands two."

"Time is the fire in which we burn."

"The glory of the world passes away."

"I cannot rest, I cannot stay in place, I cannot accept or permit stillness."

"Every man desires to live long, but no man would be old."