Secrecy is the first essential in affairs of state.
Nothing so upholds the laws as the punishment of persons whose rank is as great as their crime.
Deception is the knowledge of kings.
We may employ artifice to deceive a rival, anything against our enemies.
War is one of the scourges with which it has pleased God to afflict men.
If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.