One must learn to forgive and not to hold a hostile, bitter attitude of mind, which offends those about us and prevents us from enjoying ourselves. One must recognize human shortcomings and adjust himself to them rather than to be constantly finding fault with them.

Do you know what astonished me the most in this world? The inability of force to create anything.

War is a lottery in which nations ought to risk nothing but small amounts.

A prince should suspect everything.

I have noticed in every campaign that I have fought-that there is a key segment of time, somewhere between 13 and 15 minutes in which the battle is won or lost. I focus on that segment of time, and I win.

A nation recruits men more easily than it can retrieve its honour.

The infectiousness of crime is like that of the plague.