From this one can draw a general conclusion that will never (or hardly ever) be proved wrong: He who is the cause of someone else's becoming powerful is the agent of his own destruction; for he makes his protege powerful either through his own skill or through his own strength, and either of these must provoke his protege's mistrust once he has become powerful.

machiavelli, the prince, ch.3 p.14

The Romans always looked ahead and took action to remedy problems before they developed. They never postponed action in order to avoid a war, for they understood you cannot escape wars, and when you put them off only your opponents benefit.

machiavelli, the prince, ch.3 p.11

There is a general rule to be noted here: People should either be caressed or crushed. If you do them minor damage they will get their revenge; but if you cripple them there is nothing they can do. If you need to injure someone, do it in such a way that you do not have to fear their vengeance.

machiavelli, the prince, ch.3 p.10

compare to thucydides and his modern-day disciple donald kagan, who advise politicians to never take half measures. half measures led to the spartan defeat and the cuban missile crisis, and apparently, if machiavelli is to be believed, to every rebellion against a prince.

Thus, you [as a new prince] make enemies of all those to whom you have given offense in acquiring power, and in addition you cannot keep the goodwill of those who have put you in power, for you cannot satisfy their aspirations as they thought you would.

machiavelli, the prince, ch.3 p.7

...I had begun to think I had, if not lost, then mislaid your goodwill, for you had allowed so long to go by without writing to me, and I was in some uncertainty as to what the reason could be.

machiavelli, introductory letter to francesco vettori in the prince, p.1

All states, all forms of government that have had and continue to have authority over men, have been and are either republics or principalities.

machiavelli, the prince, ch.1 p.6

St. Augustine was troubled in conscience whenever he caught himself delighting in music, which he took to be sinful. He was a choice spirit, and were he living today would agree with us. I have no use for cranks who despise music, because it is a gift of God.

luther, from here i stand by roland bainton, ch.18 p.266

There are vexations between the married couple. 'Good God,' ejaculated Luther, 'what a lot of trouble there is in marriage! Adam has made a mess of our nature. Think of all the squabbles Adam and Eve must have had in the course of their nine hundred years. Eve would say, 'You ate the apple,' and Adam would retort, 'You gave it to me.'

here i stand by roland bainton, ch.17 p.235

God uses lust to impel men to marriage, ambition to office, avarice to earning, and fear to faith.

luther's table talk,

from here i stand by roland bainton, ch.17 p.230

Part of [Luther's] indignation was aroused by the immorality of the priests, for he estimated that out of the twenty-five not over three were not fornicators. But this was not the primary ground for his attack. He always insisted that he differed from previous reformers in that they attacked the life and he the doctrine.

here i stand by roland bainton, ch.15 p.193

Alexander attended a banquet and, if the traditional accounts are to be believed, literally drank himself to death. The climax came in an exchange of toasts in which he is said to have downed twelve pints of undiluted wine in one steady draft. He doubled up with a violent spasm and collapsed into a coma, from which his doctors were unable to revive him.

peoples and empires by anthony pagden, p.10

When Luther looked at his family in 1538, he remarked, 'Christ said we must become as little children to enter the kingdom of heaven. Dear God, this is too much. Have we got to become such idiots?'

here i stand by roland bainton, ch.17 p.236

On parting the next morning [the travelers] let the knight know that they took him for Hutton. 'No, he is Luther,' interposed the host. The knight laughed. 'You take me for Hutton. He takes me for Luther. Maybe I am the Devil.'

here i stand by roland bainton, ch.12 p.165

Indeed, the style and the spittle all point to Eck. True, it is not impossible that where Eck is the apostle there one should find the kingdom of Antichrist.

luther, against the execrable bull of antichrist,

from here i stand by roland bainton, ch.9 p.125

Luther was not concerned to philosophize about the structure of Church and state; his insistence was simply that every man must answer for himself to God.

here i stand by roland bainton, ch.8 p.109

If sacramentalism is undercut, sacerdotalism is bound to fall. Luther with one stroke reduced the number of sacraments from seven to two. Confirmation, marriage, ordination, penance, and extreme unction were eliminated. The Lord's Supper and baptism alone remained. The principle which dictated this reduction was that a sacrament must have been directly instituted by Christ and must be distinctly Christian.

here i stand by roland bainton, ch.8 p.106

Pallida mors equo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas,

Regumque turres.

horace, quoted by cervantes in prologue to don quixote

Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro.

aesop, quoted by cervantes in prologue to don quixote