No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.

A prudent man... must behave like those archers who, if they are skillful, when the target seems too distant, know the capabilities of their bow and aim a good deal higher than their objective, not in order to shoot so high but so that by aiming high they can reach the target.

In our own days we have seen no princes accomplish great results save those who have been accounted miserly.

If the present be compared with the remote past, it is easily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were.

Republics have a longer life and enjoy better fortune than principalities, because they can profit by their greater internal diversity. They are the better able to meet emergencies.

Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not to suffer.

Everyone who wants to know what will happen ought to examine what has happened: everything in this world in any epoch has their replicas in antiquity.