In respect to foresight and firmness, the people are more prudent, more stable, and have better judgement than princes.

Men are driven by two principal impulses, either by love or by fear.

Any harm you do to a man should be done in such a way that you need not fear his revenge.

I desire to go to Hell and not to Heaven. In the former I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings and princes, while in the latter are only beggars, monks and apostles

It is a foolish prince who entrusts the safety of his lands to hired men.

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.

The reply is, that one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to be wanting. For it may be said of men in general that they are ungrateful, voluble, dissemblers, anxious to avoid danger, and covetous of gain; as long as you benefit them, they are entirely yours; they offer you their blood, their goods, their life, and their children, as I have before said, when the necessity is remote; but when it approaches, they revolt.