I excelled all in influence, although I had no more power than the others who were my colleagues in office.

Make haste slowly.

I found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble.

This mind is luminous — what more is there to say?

-- Wang Yangming

Equanimity.

-- Antoninus Pius

Let them hate me, so long as they approve of my conduct.

-- Tiberius

I wish I had never learned to write.

-- Nero

What an artist the world is losing in me!

-- Nero

How happy are those who do not know how to read or write!

-- Nero