Nature uses as little as possible of anything.

I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses.

If heaven had granted me five more years, I could have become a real painter.

-- Katsushika Hokusai

What I wanted was simple: to preserve what existed.

-- Klemens von Metternich

I am a rock of order.

-- Klemens von Metternich

If Maximilian I was the last knight, Franz Joseph is the last monarch.

-- Franz Joseph I of Austria

I have conquered twenty-four cities, each with their surrounding districts.

-- Mansa Musa

No friend ever did him a service, and no enemy ever did him a wrong, that he did not surpass in repayment.

-- Sulla