Severities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offense; benefits ought to be handed ought drop by drop, so that they may be relished the more.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.
Niccolo Machiavelli

I consider looseness with words no less of a defect than looseness of the bowels.
John Calvin

The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to an uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government.
James Madison

And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.
James Madison

I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.
Marcus Aurelius

There is hardly such a thing as a war in which it makes no difference who wins. Nearly always one side stands more of less for progress, the other side more or less for reaction.
George Orwell

For a creative writer possession of the "truth" is less important than emotional sincerity.
George Orwell

I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure.
John D. Rockefeller

The only way you get that fat off is to eat less and exercise more.
Jack LaLanne

A man's character always takes its hue, more or less, from the form and color of things about him.
Frederick Douglass

I like to think of my behavior in the sixties as a "learning experience." Then again, I like to think of anything stupid I've done as a "learning experience." It makes me feel less stupid.
P. J. O'Rourke

The tighter you squeeze, the less you have.
Thomas Merton

The less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudice.
Clint Eastwood

I'm interested in the fact that the less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudice.
Clint Eastwood

Liking money like I like it, is nothing less than mysticism. Money is a glory.
Salvador Dali

The omission of good is no less reprehensible than the commission of evil.
Plutarch

Do not speak of your happiness to one less fortunate than yourself.
Plutarch

I won't accept anything less than the best a player's capable of doing... and he has the right to expect the best that I can do for him and the team!
Oliver Wendell Holmes

I love not man the less, but Nature more.
Lord Byron