The reply is, that one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to be wanting. For it may be said of men in general that they are ungrateful, voluble, dissemblers, anxious to avoid danger, and covetous of gain; as long as you benefit them, they are entirely yours; they offer you their blood, their goods, their life, and their children, as I have before said, when the necessity is remote; but when it approaches, they revolt.

Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.

All the armed prophets conquered; all the unarmed ones perished.

The one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not.

There is nothing more important than appearing to be religious.

He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.

The nature of man is such that people consider themselves put under an obligation as much by the benefits they confer as by those they receive.