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.

So in all human affairs one notices, if one examines them closely, that it is impossible to remove one inconvenience without another emerging.

For that reason, let a prince have the credit of conquering and holding his state, the means will always be considered honest, and he will be praised by everybody because the vulgar are always taken by what a thing seems to be and by what comes of it; and in the world there are only the vulgar, for the few find a place there only when the many have no ground to rest on.

He who has once begun to live by rapine always finds reasons for taking what is not his.

The ends justifies the means.

A prince ought to have two fears, one from within, on account of his subjects, the other from without, on account of external powers.

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