Whoever is the cause of another becoming powerful, is ruined himself.

Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.

Any harm you do to a man should be done in such a way that you need not fear his revenge.

And above all you ought to guard against leading an army to fight which is afraid or which is not confident of victory. For the greatest sign of an impending loss is when one does not believe one can win.

For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are.

Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised.

One can make this generalization about men: they are ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers, they shun danger and are greedy for profit; while you treat them well, they are yours. They would shed their blood for you, risk their property, their lives, their children, so long, as I said above, as danger is remote; but when you are in danger they turn against you.