There is nothing that Nature seems to have inclined us to as much as society.

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

Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel. Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are.

For, in truth, there is no sure way of holding other than by destroying

A wise prince then...should never be idle in times of peace but should industriously lay up stores of which to avail himself in times of adversity so that when fortune abandons him he may be prepared to resist her blows.

Whoever is the cause of another becoming powerful, is ruined himself; for that power is produced by him either through craft or force; and both of these are suspected by the one who has been raised to power.

Politics have no relation to morals.