Vittorio Alfieri quotes:

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

Deep vengeance is the daughter of deep silence.

Heaven takes care that no man secures happiness by crime.

Liars are always most disposed to swear.

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

Necessity inspires the fatal thought.

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

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

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

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

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

First thoughts are not always the best.

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

Joy surfeited turns to sorrow.

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

Ofttimes the test of courage becomes rather to live than to die.

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

A usurper always distrusts the whole world.

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

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

For 'tis impossible Hate to return with love.

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

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

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

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

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

There is a silence, the child of love, which expresses everything, and proclaims more loudly than the tongue is able to do; there are movements that are involuntary proofs of what the soul feels.

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.