Knowing how to win is the first step. We must also know how to make use of our victories.

When the ancients said a work well begun was half done, they meant to impress the importance of always endeavoring to make a good beginning.

That historians should give their own country a break, I grant you; but not so as to state things contrary to fact. For there are plenty of mistakes made by writers out of ignorance, and which any man finds it difficult to avoid. But if we knowingly write what is false, whether for the sake of our country or our friends or just to be pleasant, what difference is there between us and hack writers? Readers should be very attentive to and critical of historians, and they in turn should be constantly on their guard.

Since the masses of the people are inconstant, full of unruly desires, passionate, and reckless of consequences, they must be filled with fears to keep them in order. The ancients did well, therefore, to invent gods, and the belief in punishment after death.

If history is deprived of the Truth, we are left with nothing but an idle, unprofitable tale.

Knowing how to win is the first step. We must also know how to make use of our victories.

We can profit only by our own misfortunes and those of others. The former, though they may be the more beneficial, are also the more painful; let us turn, then, to the latter.