1) “A prudent man should always follow in the path trodden by great men and imitate those who are most excellent.”

2) “One ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved.”

3) “The Romans never allowed a trouble spot to remain simply to avoid going to war over it, because they knew that wars don’t just go away, they are only postponed to someone else’s advantage.”

4) “Everyone sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are.”

5) “It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.”

6) “The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”

7) “The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms; and as there cannot be good laws where the state is not well armed, it follows that where they are well armed they have good laws.”

8) “The injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.”

9) “There are three classes of intellects: one which comprehends by itself; another which appreciates what others comprehend; and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others; the first is the most excellent, the second is good, and the third is useless.”