"War," says Machiavelli, "ought to be the only study of a prince;" and by a prince he means every sort of state, however constituted. "He ought," says this great political doctor, "to consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes ability to execute military plans." A meditation on the conduct of political societies made old Hobbes imagine that war was the state of nature.

Responsibility prevents crimes.

Men are as much blinded by the extremes of misery as by the extremes of prosperity.

Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair.

Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants.

Power gradually extirpates from the mind every humane and gentle virtue.

When ancient opinions and rules of life are taken away, the loss cannot possibly be estimated. From that moment, we have no compass to govern us, nor can we know distinctly to what port to steer.