Secrecy is the first essential in affairs of state.

Secrecy is the first essential in affairs of the State.

To know how to dissimulate is the knowledge of kings.

Carry on any enterprise as if all future success depended on it.

If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.

War is one of the scourges with which it has pleased God to afflict men.