One never finds anything perfectly pure and ... exempt from danger.

There is nothing that Nature seems to have inclined us to as much as society.

Wisdom consists in being able to distinguish among dangers and make a choice of the least harmful.

He who desires or attempts to reform the government of a state and wishes to have it accepted, must at least retain the semblance of the old forms; so that it may seem to the people that there has been no change in the institutions, even though in fact they are entirely different from the old ones. For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities.

The prince must be a lion, but he must also know how to play the fox.

Those who either from imprudence or want of sagacity avoid doing so, are always overwhelmed with servitude and poverty; for faithful servants are always servants, and honest men are always poor; nor do any ever escape from servitude but the bold and faithless, or from poverty, but the rapacious and fraudulent.

Nature creates few men brave, industry and training makes many.