One can make this generalization about men: they are ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers, they shun danger and are greedy for profit; while you treat them well, they are yours. They would shed their blood for you, risk their property, their lives, their children, so long, as I said above, as danger is remote; but when you are in danger they turn against you.
Niccolo MachiavelliAnd truly it is a very natural and ordinary thing to desire to acquire, and always, when men do it who can, they will be praised or not blamed; but when they cannot, and wish to do it anyway, here lies the error and the blame.
Niccolo MachiavelliMen are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.
Niccolo MachiavelliA prudent man should always follow in the path trodden by great men and imitate those who are most excellent, so that if he does not attain to their greatness, at any rate he will get some tinge of it.
Niccolo MachiavelliMen walk almost always in the paths trodden by others, proceeding in their actions by imitation.
Niccolo Machiavelli