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

....those who become princes through their skill acquire the pricipality with difficulty, buy they hold onto it with ease.

Men are less hesitant about harming someone who makes himself loved than one who makes himself feared because love is held together by a chain of obligation which, since men are wretched creatures, is broken on every occasion in which their own interests are concerned; but fear is sustained by dread of punishment which will never abandon you.

One can say this in general of men: they are ungrateful, disloyal, insincere and deceitful, timid of danger and avid of profit...Love is a bond of obligation that these miserable creatures break whenever it suits them to do so; but fear holds them fast by a dread of punishment that never passes.

When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred.

A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise.

A sign of intelligence is an awareness of one's own ignorance.