“Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.”

“When soldiers have been baptized in the fire of a battle-field, they have all one rank in my eyes.”

“One must change one's tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one's superiority.”

“Men take only their needs into consideration - never their abilities.”

“If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.”

“If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.”

“The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.”

“I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other.”

“He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.”

“In politics... never retreat, never retract... never admit a mistake.”

“In politics stupidity is not a handicap.”