The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.

In war, discipline can do more than fury.

Princes should delegate to others the enactment of unpopular measures and keep in their own hands the means of winning favours.

I hold it to be of great prudence for men to abstain from threats and insulting words towards any one, for neither the one nor the other in any way diminishes the strength of the enemy; but the one makes him more cautious, and the other increases his hatred of you, and makes him more persevering in his efforts to injure you

For as good habits of the people require good laws to support them, so laws, to be observed, need good habits on the part of the people.

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

Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel. Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are.