You must never believe that the enemy does not know how to conduct his own affairs. Indeed, if you want to be deceived less and want to bear less danger, the more the enemy is weak or the less the enemy is cautious, so much more must you esteem him.
Niccolo MachiavelliMen should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.
Niccolo MachiavelliIt makes him hated above all things, as I have said, to be rapacious, and to be a violator of the property and women of his subjects, from both of which he must abstain.
Niccolo Machiavelli