"He who has not first laid his foundations may be able with great ability to lay them afterwards, but they will be laid with trouble to the architect and danger to the building."

"He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss."

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

"Is necessary to take such measures that, when they believe no longer, it may be possible to make them believe by force."

"War is a profession by which a man cannot live honorably; an employment by which the soldier, if he would reap any profit, is obliged to be false, rapacious, and cruel."

"When neither their property nor their honor is touched, the marjority of men live content."

"Not every age is fit for childish sports."

"We have flown the air like birds and swum the seas like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers."

"But why do people who are good at families have to be smug and assume it is the only way to live, as if everybody else is inadequate? Why can't they be blamed for being bad at promiscuity?"

"Sin is the only real colour element left in modern life."

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit."

"The greatest remedy for anger is delay."