Power
“All warfare is based on deception.”
— Sun Tzu, Sun Tzŭ on the Art of War The Oldest Military Treatise in the World
“The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master, unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty.”
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The social contract & discourses
“Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are.”
— Machiavelli, The Prince
“The history of all hitherto existing society... is the history of class struggles.”
— Karl Marx, Manifesto of the Communist Party
“A prince ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline.”
— Machiavelli, The Prince
“Men are so simple, and so subject to present necessities, that he who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived.”
— Machiavelli, The Prince
“Covenants, without the Sword, are but Words, and of no strength to secure a man at all.”
— Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan