Never do your enemy a minor injury.

War is a profession by which a man cannot live honorably; an employment by which the soldier, if he would reap any profit, is obliged to be false, rapacious, and cruel.

Anyone who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it may expect to be destroyed by it; for such a city may always justify rebellion in the name of liberty and its ancient institutions.

As all those have shown who have discussed civil institutions, and as every history is full of examples, it is necessary to whoever arranges to found a Republic and establish laws in it, to presuppose that all men are bad and that they will use their malignity of mind every time they have the opportunity.

....those who become princes through their skill acquire the pricipality with difficulty, buy they hold onto it with ease.

He who would foresee what is to happen should look to what has happened: for all that is has its counterpart in time past.

It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.