Necessities can be many, but the one that is stronger is that which constrains you to win or to die.

Men are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer to be tricked.

If someone puts up the argument that King Louis gave the Romagna to Pope Alexander, and the kingdom of Naples to Spain, in order to avoid a war, I would answer as I did before: that you should never let things get out of hand in order to avoid war. You don't avoid such a war, you merely postpone it, to your own disadvantage.

You do not know the unfathomable cowardice of humanity...servile in the face of force, pitiless in the face of weakness, implacable before blunders, indulgent before crimes...and patient to the point of martyrdom before all the violences of bold despotism.

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

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

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.