To know well the nature of the people one must be a prince, and to know well the nature of princes one must be of the people.

In conclusion, the arms of others either fall from your back, or they weigh you down, or they bind you fast.

One should never fall in the belief that you can find someone to pick you up.

Without doubt, ferocious and disordered men are much weaker than timid and ordered ones. For order chases fear from men and disorder lessens ferocity.

The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms.

Men are driven by two principal impulses, either by love or by fear.

Because there are three classes of intellects: one which comprehends by itself; another which appreciates what others comprehend; and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others; the first is the most excellent, the second is good, the third is useless.