"'[J]ustice is no more reasonable than what a person's prudence tells him he must acquire for himself, or must submit to, because men cannot afford justice in any sense that transcends their own preservation.'" (pp. 112, directly quoted from Harvey C. Mansfield's translation of Machiavelli)

"Statecraft... can never balance realism against idealism: there are only competing realisms." (pp. 117)

Both of these excerpts come from John Lewis Gaddis's On Grand Strategy. The book uses stories from history and the classics to teach lessons about political and military leadership.