
“There is nothing more intoxicating than victory, and nothing more dangerous.”
Source: The 48 Laws of Power
Part Two, Chapter V. Ways and means of improving the condition of Europe, interspersed with miscellaneous observations.
1790s, Rights of Man, Part 2 (1792)
“There is nothing more intoxicating than victory, and nothing more dangerous.”
Source: The 48 Laws of Power
“Nothing can contribute more to peace of soul than the lack of any opinion whatever.”
E 11
Variant translations: Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinion at all.
Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinions at all.
Nothing contributes more to a person's peace of mind than having no opinions at all.
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook E (1775 - 1776)
1970s, Remarks on Being Reelected (1972)
On Democracy (6 October 1884)
Context: Few people take the trouble of trying to find out what democracy really is. Yet this would be a great help, for it is our lawless and uncertain thoughts, it is the indefiniteness of our impressions, that fill darkness, whether mental or physical, with spectres and hobgoblins. Democracy is nothing more than an experiment in government, more likely to succeed in a new soil, but likely to be tried in all soils, which must stand or fall on its own merits as others have done before it. For there is no trick of perpetual motion in politics any more than in mechanics.
Source: [Wiener, N., A New Theory of Measurement: A Study in the Logic of Mathematics, Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, s2-19, 1, 1921, 181–205, 0024-6115, 10.1112/plms/s2-19.1.181]