[XIII. Auxiliary, composite and native troops] Niccolo Machiavelli. The Prince.
- Wise princes have always shunned auxiliaries and made use of their own forces. They preferred to lose battles with their own forces, than to win them with others, in the belief that no true victory is possible with alien arms.
- Armour belonging to someone else either drops off you, weighs you down or is too tight.
- Wise men have always believed: ‘quod nihil sit tam infirmum aut instabile quam fama potentae non sua vi nixa’ or ‘nothing is so weak or unstable as a reputation for power which is not based on one’s own forces.’
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