When neither their property nor their honor is touched, the majority of men live content.
A prince need trouble little about conspiracies when the people are well disposed, but when they are hostile and hold him in hatred, then he must fear everything and everybody.
The prince must be a lion, but he must also know how to play the fox.
It is better to be adventurous than cautious, because fortune is a woman.
Tardiness often robs us opportunity, and the dispatch of our forces.
All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it's impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.