It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.

There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.

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.

Men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.

It is much safer for the prince to be feared than loved, but he ought to avoid making himself hated.

When men receive favours from someone they expected to do them ill, they are under a greater obligation to their benefactor.

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.