Domitian

"Truth is a flower that blooms in darkness; light will wilt it."

"Men will endure tyranny if they believe it serves their safety."

"The greatest victory is won before the first blow is struck."

"Forgiveness is a sign of weakness that the powerful cannot afford."

"The architect of one's downfall is often one's greatest admirer."

"What begins as ambition often ends as obsession, and obsession as madness."

"To love a ruler is to accept the possibility of sudden abandonment."

"The silence of the masses speaks louder than a thousand voices."

"A man who surrounds himself with mirrors will see nothing but himself."

"The grandeur of Rome cannot compensate for the emptiness of the soul."

"Those who build monuments to themselves rarely live to see them completed."

"Patience is a virtue for the weak; decisiveness, the mark of greatness."

"The historian writes of the victor; the truth dies with the vanquished."

"A gold coin weighs the same as a lead one, yet men kill for the former."

"The secret police are the veins through which power flows to the heart."

"To dream of immortality is to accept the reality of mortality."

"The strength of a chain is measured by its weakest link, yet I forge all links equally."

"What is law but the will of the powerful dressed in robes of justice?"

"The crown sits uneasily upon the head of one who fears his own shadow."

"To inspire devotion is to demand eventual betrayal."

"The pursuit of beauty often leads to the creation of ugliness."

"A man's legacy is written in the tears of those he has wronged."

"Knowledge is power only if one has the will to use it ruthlessly."

"The empire expands until it cannot sustain itself, then it collapses."

"To rule is to be eternally suspicious, eternally vigilant, eternally alone."

"The greatest art is the sculpture of men's minds through propaganda."

"Fame is a disease with no cure, only varying degrees of severity."

"The man who seeks power will find it; the price, however, is his humanity."

"A state built on fear will inevitably consume itself in paranoia."

"The words of a ruler are law until his successor rewrites them."