Having heard that Bussiere, who is Chamberlain to the Ambassadors at Rome, had declared I should not have a place in Saint Louis’s church on the festival of that saint, I was not discouraged from going thither. At my entrance he snatched the holy water stick from the cure just as he was going to sprinkle me; nevertheless, I took my place, and was resolved to keep up the status and dignity of a French cardinal. This was my condition at Rome, where it was my fate to be a refugee, persecuted by my King and abused by the Pope. All my revenues were seized, and the French bankers forbidden to serve me; nay, those who had an inclination to assist me were forced to promise they would not. Two of the Abbe Fouquet’s bastards were publicly maintained out of my revenues, and no means were left untried to hinder the farmers from relieving me, or my creditors from harassing me with vexatious and expensive lawsuits. THE ETEXT EDITORS BOOKMARKS Always judged of actions by men, and never men by their actions Always to sacrifice the little affairs to the greater Arms which are not tempered by laws quickly become anarchy Associating patience with activity Assurrance often supplies the room of good sense Blindness that make authority to consist only in force Bounty, which, though very often secret, had the louder echo Buckingham had been in love with three Queens By the means of a hundred pistoles down, and vast promises Civil war as not powerful enough to conclude a peace Civil war is one of those complicated diseases Clergy always great examples of slavish servitude Confounded the most weighty with the most trifling Contempt--the most dangerous disease of any State Dangerous to refuse presents from one’s superiors Distinguished between bad and worse, good and better Fading flowers, which are fragrant to-day and offensive tomorrow False glory and false modesty Fool in adversity and a knave in prosperity Fools yield only when they cannot help it Good news should be employed in providing against bad He weighed everything, but fixed on nothing He knew how to put a good gloss upon his failings He had not a long view of what was beyond his reach Help to blind the rest of mankind, and they even become blinder His ideas were infinitely above his capacity His wit was far inferior to his courage Impossible for her to live without being in love with somebody Inconvenience of popularity Insinuation is of more service than that of persuasion Is there a greater in the world than heading a party? Kinds of fear only to be removed by higher degrees of terror Laws without the protection of arms sink into contempt Man that supposed everybody had a back door Maxims showed not great regard for virtue Mazarin: embezzling some nine millions of the public money Men of irresolution are apt to catch at all overtures More ambitious than was consistent with morality My utmost to save other souls, though I took no care of my own Need of caution in what we say to our friends