In conclusion, the arms of others either fall from your back, or they weigh you down, or they bind you fast.

Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.

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

A battle that you win cancels all your mistakes.

A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.

It is a true observation of ancient writers, that as men are apt to be cast down by adversity, so they, are easily satiated with prosperity, and that joy and grief produce the same effects. For whenever men are not obliged by necessity to fight they fight from ambition, which is so powerful a passion in the human breast that however high we reach we are never satisfied.

....it cannot be called ingenuity to kill one's fellow citizens, to betray friends, to be without faith, without mercy, without religion; by these means one can aquire power but not glory.