One can generally say this about men: that they are ungrateful, fickle, simulators and deceivers, avoiders of danger, greedy for gain; and while you work for their good they are completely yours, offering you their blood, their property, their lives, and their sons when danger is far away; but when it comes nearer to you, they turn away.

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

A battle that you win cancels all your mistakes.

Sometimes it has been of great moment while the fight is going on, to disseminate words that pronounce the enemies' captain to be dead, or to have been conquered by another part of the army. Many times this has given victory to him who used it.

Men are always wicked at bottom unless they are made good by some compulsion.

The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.

He who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation.