Translation: There is nothing which so calls for men’s closest attention, and so seldom pardons a mistake, however small, as war. - Giovanni Francesco Lottini

Translation: It is just as harmful to pluck an opportunity too green, as to leave it till it is over-ripe.

Translation: He who has powerful enemies should, for his own protection and their undoing, firmly believe two things, apparently contradictory; first that they are both bold and prudent, and secondly that with all their prudence they are capable of making mistakes.

Translation: Every State, as has been said, should desire peace, and should manifest that desire both in word and action, but with all that, in her military preparations she should show herself warlike, for peace unarmed is a feeble thing.