Tofight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supremeexcellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.

A status symbol is an instrument you clash when you want someone to know you are there.

The exercise of power is determined by thousands ofinteractions between the world of the powerful and that of the powerless, allthe more so because these worlds are never divided by a sharp line: everyonehas a small part of himself in both.

Opportunists take now for an answer.

Power never takes a back step only in the face of morepower.

Modesty is the clothing of talent.

Manners make the fortune of the ambitious youth.

There is something monstrous in commands couched in invented and unfamiliar language, an alien master is the worst of all. The language of the law must not be foreign to the ears of those who are to obey it.

Too late is the medicine prepared, when the disease has strengthened by long delay.

If you follow me, I may lead you straight to hell, but ifyou trust me, I will lead you back out again.

The more estimable the offender, the greater the torment.

Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.