"It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are bad, and that they will use their malignity of mind whenever they have a free opportunity to do so."

"It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver."

"For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often even more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are."

"The common people are always caught by appearances and by the outcome of a thing; and in the world there are only the common people."

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