Tarquin the Proud

"The people fear what they do not understand. Therefore, I ensured they understood very little."

"Nature bows to man's will when man has sufficient will to enforce it."

"Education of the masses breeds rebellion. It is better to educate only the elite."

"A kingdom without fear is a kingdom without order. Therefore, I cultivated fear as a garden cultivates roses."

"Dreams are for sleepers. Ambition is for those awake at midnight, plotting."

"The Senate was a beautiful cage. I simply opened the door and stepped out."

"In matters of money and power, sentiment is bankruptcy waiting to happen."

"A man who does not hunger for more is a man already defeated."

"The gods favor the bold. I have always been bold."

"Health is irrelevant to greatness. I have seen the weak change the course of empires through sheer will."

"Every crisis is an opportunity for a man of action. While others despaired, I advanced."

"Gratitude is the emotion of subordinates. Superiors inspire gratitude; they do not feel it."

"The future belongs to those cruel enough to seize it and wise enough to keep it."

"Wars are won not on battlefields but in the hearts of men. Make them love you or fear you—either will suffice."

"A creative mind without power is merely entertainment. Power without creativity is mere brutality."

"Justice is whatever I decree it to be. This is why I decreed such magnificent justice."

"The person who hesitates in crucial moments has already lost."

"Kindness to your rivals is weakness. I have no rivals, only those not yet conquered."

"Death comes for us all. The question is whether you die having lived greatly."

"I built the Cloaca Maxima so that Rome's waste would flow away from Rome. So too must one dispose of one's enemies."

"The best rulers are those who convince the ruled that servitude is freedom."

"Humor is a weapon. Those who laugh at you do not fear you. I preferred to be feared."

"Beauty fades, power endures. I invested in endurance."

"Science tells us how the world works. A true ruler makes the world work for him regardless."

"Music soothes the savage breast, but it also makes the crowd compliant. I commissioned music constantly."

"Adventure is what we call foolishness when we survive it, and tragedy when we do not."

"Imagination without execution is merely daydreaming. I executed my imaginations."

"Technology is the tool of kings. He who controls innovation controls destiny."

"Every page of history is written in blood and ambition. I wrote several chapters myself."

"Philosophy is the pursuit of questions that matter only to philosophers. I pursued power."