Advise well before you begin, and when you have maturely considered, then act with promptitude.
Small endeavours obtain strength by unity of action: the most powerful are broken down by discord.
A good man would prefer to be defeated than to defeat injustice by evil means.
By union the smallest states thrive. By discord the greatest are destroyed.
Everything rises but to fall, and increases but to decay.
Fortune rules in all things, and advances and depresses things more out of her own will than right and justice.