Nero

"If you begin to live life looking forward to happiness in the future, you will never be happy. Happiness is now."

"I wish the Roman people had only one neck."

"What is an emperor without the love of his people?"

"It is more cruel to take life than to lose it."

"Art is the mirror of the soul."

"Do you not know that no one can rob us of our free will?"

"The greatest love is a mother's; then comes a dog's; then a sweetheart's."

"I have lost the day."

"More of the same."

"It is the part of a wise man to try himself out in time of peace, and not to wait for war to discover his shortcomings."

"You cannot step twice into the same river."

"The mind is everything. What you think, you become."

"Leisure and work, charm and strength."

"If it were not for the company of fools, a witty man would often be at a loss."

"Where is the man who is as ready to die for you as you are for him?"

"Music soothes the savage beast."

"What is all the glory of the world worth?"

"I have squandered the days of my life."

"How long have I desired a man like myself!"

"I am a god incarnate."

"The world would have been happier without me."

"To know oneself is the beginning of wisdom."

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

"What could be more important than power?"

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that very existence is an act of rebellion."

"Better to reign in Rome for one day than a lifetime elsewhere."

"I love the smell of the arena in the morning."

"Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice."

"What is the purpose of life if not to leave a mark upon the world?"

"I was not born for one corner; the whole world is my native land."