Niccolò Machiavelli on risk

Rome remained free for four hundred years and Sparta eight hundred, although their citizens were armed all that time; but many other states that have been disarmed have lost their liberties in less than forty years.

Occasionally words must serve to veil the facts. But this must happen in such a way that no one becomes aware of it; or, if it should be noticed, excuses must be at hand, to be produced immediately.

There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first is excellent, the second good, and the third useless.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I…I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost1874–1963The Road Not Taken (1915), Mountain Interval (1916, 1920), The Road Not Taken, st. 4In context

A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.

Dwight D. Eisenhower1890–1969

• Leadership

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.

Albert Einstein1879–1955