Deception is the knowledge of kings.

War is one of the scourges with which it has pleased God to afflict men.

Friendship is the medicine for all misfortune; but ingratitude dries up the fountain of all goodness.

Nothing so upholds the laws as the punishment of persons whose rank is as great as their crime.

I have never had any [enemies] other than those of the state.

One must believe neither the people of the palace, who ordinarily measure the power of the king by the shape of his crown, which, being round, has no end, nor those who, in the excesses of an indiscreet zeal, proclaim themselves openly as partisans of Rome.

Who will be my equal?