It makes him hated above all things, as I have said, to be rapacious, and to be a violator of the property and women of his subjects, from both of which he must abstain.

There should be many judges, for few will always do the will of few.

For as laws are necessary that good manners be preserved, so there is need of good manners that law may be maintained.

The greatest remedy that is used against a plan of the enemy is to do voluntarily what he plans that you do by force.

The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms.

A prince, therefore, must not mind incurring the charge of cruelty for the purpose of keeping his subjects united and confident; for, with a very few examples, he will be more merciful than those who, from excess of tenderness, allow disorders to arise, from whence spring murders and rapine; for these as a rule injure the whole community, while the executions carried out by the prince injure only one individual. And of all princes, it is impossible for a new prince to escape the name of cruel, new states being always full of dangers.

When every province of the world so teems with inhabitants that they can neither subsist where they are nor remove themselves elsewhere.