There are four powers: memory and intellect, desire and covetousness. The two first are mental and the others sensual. The three senses sight, hearing, and smell cannot well be prevented; touch and taste not at all.

I start out by believing the worst.

When you have an enemy in your power, deprive him of the means of ever injuring you.

The keys of a fortress are always well worth the retirement of the garrison when it is resolved to yield only on those conditions. On this principle it is always wiser to grant an honorable capitulation to a garrison which has made a vigorous resistance than to risk an assault.

We should take care not to make the intellect our goal; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.

The attempt to combine wisdom and power has only rarely been successful and then only for a short while.