"It is a common error among men to believe that the shortest way to conquer a thing is to try to obtain it by force."

"There is no surer way of holding an acquired state than by ruining it."

"To conquer, one must have the spirit of a lion and the cunning of a fox."

"For of men it may generally be affirmed that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and as long as you succeed they are entirely yours, offering you their blood, their property, their…"

"He who is the cause of another becoming powerful is ruined; because that power has been effected either by industry or by force, and both of these are suspicious to the one who has been raised to powe…"