So far as he is able, a prince should stick to the path of good but, if the necessity arises, he should know how to follow evil.

I hold strongly to this: that it is better to be impetuous than circumspect; because fortune is a woman and if she is to be submissive it is necessary to beat and coerce her.

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.

God and nature have thrown all human fortunes into the midst of mankind; and they are thus attainable rather by rapine than by industry, by wicked actions rather than by good. Hence it is that men feed upon each other, and those who cannot defend themselves must be worried.

You know better than I that in a Republic talent is always suspect. A man attains an elevated position only when his mediocrity prevents him from being a threat to others. And for this reason a democracy is never governed by the most competent, but rather by those whose insignificance will not jeopardize anyone else's self-esteem.

Benefits should be conferred gradually; and in that way they will taste better.

Is it better to be loved or feared?