"Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number of men who are not good."

"He who desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with the assumption that all men are bad, and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasion for it."

"No state is ever well established unless it has a good army."

"He who is not a friend to the new order of things must be an enemy to it."

"For the nature of men is such that they are much more bound by the benefits they confer than by those they receive."