Since the handling of arms is a beautiful spectacle, it is delightful to young men.

Besides what has been said, people are fickle by nature; and it is a simple to convince them of something but difficult to hold them in that conviction; and, therefore, affairs should be managed in such a way that when they no longer believe, they can be made to believe by force.

There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.

He who has once begun to live by rapine always finds reasons for taking what is not his.

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

For a long time I have not said what I believed, nor do I ever believe what I say, and if indeed sometimes I do happen to tell the truth, I hide it among so many lies that it is hard to find.

A multitude is strong while it holds together, but so soon as each of those who compose it begins ro think of his own private danger, it becomes weak and contemptible.