For what fortress, what city, in the wide extent of the Roman empire, can hope to exist, secure and impregnable, if it is our pleasure that it should be erased from the earth?

Never arbitrate. Arbitration allows a third party to determine your destiny. It is a resort of the weak.

If an incompetent chieftain is removed, seldom do we appoint his highest-ranking subordinate to his place

It is unfortunate when final decisions are made by chieftains headquartered miles away from the front, where they can only guess at conditions and potentialities known only to the captain of the battlefield.

It's not that I succeed, it's that everyone else has to fail, horribly, preferably in front of their parents.

Everybody has value; even if to serve as a bad example.

Chieftains must understand that the spirit of the law is greater than its letter.