A single word has sometimes lost or won an empire.

Carry on any enterprise as if all future success depended on it.

Secrecy is the first essential in affairs of the State.

To mislead a rival, deception is permissable; one may use all means against his enemies.

Bakers of bread rolls and pastry cooks will not buy grain before eleven o'clock in winter and noon in summer.

Not the least of the qualities that go into the making of a great ruler is the ability of letting others serve him.

We may employ artifice to deceive a rival, anything against our enemies.

Bakers of bread rolls and pastry cooks will not buy grain before eleven o'clock in winter and noon in summer; bakers of large loaves will not buy grain before two o'clock. This will enable the people of the town to obtain their supply first. Bakers shall put a distinctive trademark on their loaves, and keep weights and scales in their shops, under penalty of having their licenses removed.

Give me six lines written by the most honorable person alive, and I shall find enough in them to condemn them to the gallows.

If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.

I was excellent. Everybody loved me. I love myself, and I like bums.

When people are too comfortable, it is not possible to restrain them within the bounds of their duty? They may be compared to mules who, being accustomed to burdens, are spoilt by rest rather than labour.

Did you think I was immortal?

Secrecy is the first essential in affairs of state.

Deception is the knowledge of kings.

To know how to disguise is the knowledge of kings.

Friendship is the medicine for all misfortune; but ingratitude dries up the fountain of all goodness.

Harshness towards individuals who flout the laws and commands of the state is for the public good; no greater crime against the public interest is possible than to show leniency to those who violate it.

To know how to dissimulate is the knowledge of kings.

If God forbade drinking, would He have made wine so good?