Excerpt from The Maxims of Francis Guicciardini: With Parallel Passages From the Works of Machiavelli, Lord Bacon, Pascal, Rochefoucault, Montesquieu, Mr. Burke, Prince Tallerand, M. Guizot, and Others The observations of the practised Statesman, page 139, Maxim 135, whosoever doth lose a Beginning, though it be small, doth often lose the introduction and admittance to great Things, and page 83, Maxim 78, Let him who would be employed, beware of letting the possession of Business be drawn away from him; for one thing doth give occasion to another are confirmed by the rise of his own dignities. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.