Animals behave in set patterns, which is why we are able to hunt and kill them. Only man has the capacity to consciously alter his behavior, to improvise and overcome the weight of routine and habit.

Understand: A person of power instills a kind of fear by deliberately unsettling those around him to keep the initative on his side.

When a man gets it into his head to do something, and when he exclusively occupies himself in that design, he must succeed, whatever the difficulties. That man will become Grand Vizier or Pope.

Fools say that they learn by experience. I prefer to profit by others' experience.

Writers who have delved into human nature, ancient masters of strategy, historians of human stupidity and folly, kings and queens who have learned the hard way how to handle the burden of power - there knowledge is gathering dust, waiting for you to come and stand on their shoulders. Their wit can be your wit, their skill can be your skill, and they will never come around to tell people how unoriginal you really are. You can slog through life, make endless mistakes, wasting time and energy trying to do things from your own experience. Or you can use the armies of the past. As Bismarck once said, "Fools say that they learn by experience. I prefer to profit by others' experience."

Only create associations with positive affinities. Make this a rule of life and you will benefit more than from all the therapy in the world. 

It is better to be feared than loved. Fear you can control; love, never.

There are no principles; there are only events. There is no good and bad, there are only circumstances.

For the future, the motto is, "No days unalert."

Playing with appearances and mastering the arts of deception are among the aesthetic pleasures of life. They are also key components in the acquisition of power.