How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?
China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese.
There can be no other criterion, no other standard than gold. Yes, gold which never changes, which can be shaped into ingots, bars, coins, which has no nationality and which is eternally and universally accepted as the unalterable fiduciary value par excellence.
To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.
Treaties are like roses and young girls. They last while they last.
Whereas ordinary officers must be content with behaving correctly in front of their men, the great leaders have always carefully stage-managed their effects.