Authority doesn't work without prestige, or prestige without distance.

I am not bad, thank you. But don't worry, one of these days I shall certainly die.

Politics, when it is an art and a service, not an exploitation, is about acting for an ideal through realities.

A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.

Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.

Nothing more enhances authority than silence. It is the crowning virtue of the strong, the refuge of the weak, the modesty of the proud, the pride of the humble, the prudence of the wise, and the sense of fools. To speak is to . . . dissipate one's strength; whereas what action demands is concentration. Silence is a necessary preliminary to the ordering of one's thoughts.

Betting against gold is the same as betting on governments. He who bets on governments and government money bets against 6,000 years of recorded human history.