Politics have no relation to morals.

The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.

Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.

I desire to go to Hell and not to Heaven. In the former I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings and princes, while in the latter are only beggars, monks and apostles

Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.

A government which does not trust its citizens to be armed is not itself to be trusted.

Men are so stupid and concerned with their present needs, they will always let themselves be deceived.

It is just as difficult and dangerous to try to free a people that wants to remain servile as it is to enslave a people that wants to remain free.

Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good.

A sign of intelligence is an awareness of one's own ignorance.

Power is the pivot on which everything hinges. He who has the power is always right; the weaker is always wrong.

Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.

He was abominable...and the most alluring, tortured soul I'd ever met.

I have never yet met a healthy person who worried very much about his health, or a really good person who worried much about his own soul.

Put away your gods and come and worship ours, or we will kill you and your gods!

He is the happiest man who can see the connection between the end and the beginning of life.

When I was growing up, I lived in a neighborhood that was largely Latino and I thought I was Latino!

Sovereignty is not given, it is taken.

If you can make me laugh, my heart is yours! I think there's nothing more attractive than someone who doesn't take themselves too seriously.

I am really much more afraid of those people who have so great a fear of the devil, than I am of the devil himself.

I'm going to quit music. Then the government of Japan asked me to write a piano concerto - that was an offer I couldn't refuse, so that brought me back to music again.