Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.

A battle that you win cancels any other bad action of yours. In the same way, by losing one, all the good things worked by you before become vain.

So far as he is able, a prince should stick to the path of good but, if the necessity arises, he should know how to follow evil.

For whoever conquers a free Town, and does not demolish it, commits a great Error, and may expect to be ruin 'd himself.

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

When settling disputes between his subjects, he should ensure that his judgement is irrevocable; and he should be so regarded that no one ever dreams of trying to deceive or trick him.

A prince need trouble little about conspiracies when the people are well disposed, but when they are hostile and hold him in hatred, then he must fear everything and everybody.