Frederick the Great was accustomed to say: The older one gets the more convinced one becomes that his Majesty King Chance does three-quarters of the business of this miserable universe.

One can assess a prince's intelligence by looking at the men with whom he surrounds himself.

If in other respects the old condition of things be continued, and there be no discordance in their customs, men live peaceably with one another...

Many have imagined republics and principalities which have never been seen or known to exist in reality, for how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live, that he who abandons what is done for what ought to be done will rather bring about his ruin than his preservation.

The gulf between how one should live and how one does live is so wide that a man who neglects what is actually done for what should be done learns the way to self-destruction rather than self-preservation.

Hence it comes that all armed prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed prophets have been destroyed.

The wise man should always follow the roads that have been trodden by the great, and imitate those who have most excelled, so that if he cannot reach their perfection, he may at least acquire something of its savour.