To know in war how to recognize an opportunity and seize it is better than anything else.

Anyone who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it may expect to be destroyed by it; for such a city may always justify rebellion in the name of liberty and its ancient institutions.

Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.

But in Republics there is a stronger vitality, a fiercer hatred, a keener thirst for revenge. The memory of their former freedom will not let them rest; so that the safest course is either to destroy them, or to go and live in them.

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

Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised.

Occasionally words must serve to veil the facts. But let this happen in such a way that no one become aware of it; or, if it should be noticed, excuses must be at hand to be produced immediately.