"Men must either be caressed or annihilated; they will revenge themselves for slight wrongs, but not for great ones."

"Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are."

"It is not the well-being of individuals, but the general good, that makes cities great."

"The people, when they are not restrained by fear, are always ready to commit every kind of excess."

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