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.

Men may second fortune, but they cannot thwart her.

There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.

In the armies and among every ten men there is one of more life, of more heart, or at least of more authority, who with his courage, with words and by example keeps the others firm and disposed to fight.

If the present be compared with the remote past, it is easily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were.

Only those means of security are good, are certain, are lasting, that depend on yourself and your own vigor.

The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.