A wise ruler should rely on what is under his own control, not on what is under the control of others.

Human beings remain constant in their methods of conduct.

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.

It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.

Besides what has been said, people are fickle by nature; and it is a simple to convince them of something but difficult to hold them in that conviction; and, therefore, affairs should be managed in such a way that when they no longer believe, they can be made to believe by force.

It has always been the opinion and judgment of wise men that nothing can be so uncertain as fame or power not founded on its own strength.

How we live is so different from how we ought to live that he who studies what ought to be done rather than what is done will learn the way to his downfall rather than to his preservation.