There is nothing more important than appearing to be religious.

Good order and discipline in any army are to be depended upon more than courage alone.

Whoever is the cause of another becoming powerful, is ruined himself.

Men generally decide upon a middle course, which is most hazardous, for they know neither how to be entirely good nor entirely bad.

The ends justifies the means.

All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it's impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.

One can say this in general of men: they are ungrateful, disloyal, insincere and deceitful, timid of danger and avid of profit...Love is a bond of obligation that these miserable creatures break whenever it suits them to do so; but fear holds them fast by a dread of punishment that never passes.