How laudable it is for a prince to keep good faith and live with integrity, and not with astuteness, every one knows. Still the experience of our times shows those princes to have done great things who have had little regard for good faith, and have been able by astuteness to confuse men's brains, and who have ultimately overcome those who have made loyalty their foundation.

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

The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.

The reformer has enemies in all who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order.

The princes who have done great things are the ones who have taken little account of their promises.

The leader should know how to enter into evil when necessity commands.

Laa shay'a waqi'un moutlaq bale kouloun moumkine...We work in the Dark, to serve the Light.