States that rise quickly, just as all the other things of nature that are born and grow rapidly, cannot have roots and ramifications; the first bad weather kills them

Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.

There is nothing as likely to succeed as what the enemy believes you cannot attempt.

It is better to be adventurous than cautious, because fortune is a woman.

There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new order of things..... Whenever his enemies have occasion to attack the innovator they do so with the passion of partisans, while the others defend him sluggishly so that the innovator and his party alike are vulnerable.

The unarmed man is not just defenseless - he is also contemptible.

Wise men say, and not without reason, that whosoever wished to foresee the future might consult the past.