They have plundered the world, stripping naked the land in their hunger… they are driven by greed, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poor… They ravage, they slaughter, they seize by false pretenses, and all of this they hail as the construction of empire. And when in their wake nothing remains but a desert, they call that peace.

In private enterprises men may advance or recede, whereas they who aim at empire have no alternative between the highest success and utter downfall.

Old things are always in good repute, present things in disfavor.

Those in supreme power always suspect and hate their next heir.

That cannot be safe which is not honourable.

A woman once fallen will shrink from no impropriety.

So true is it that all transactions of preeminent importance are wrapt in doubt and obscurity; while some hold for certain facts the most precarious hearsays, others turn facts into falsehood; and both are exaggerated by posterity.