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

Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.

The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.

I hold it to be a proof of great prudence for men to abstain from threats and insulting words toward anyone, for neither diminishes the strength of the enemy.

Thus it is well to seem merciful, faithful, humane, sincere, religious, and also to be so; but you must have the mind so disposed that when it is needful to be otherwise you may be able to change to the opposite qualities.

If the chief party, whether it be the people, or the army, or the nobility, which you think most useful and of most consequence to you for the conservation of your dignity, be corrupt, you must follow their humor and indulge them, and in that case honesty and virtue are pernicious.

Since the handling of arms is a beautiful spectacle, it is delightful to young men.