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.

...it behooves us to adapt oneself to the times if one wants to enjoy continued good fortune.

There is nothing more important than appearing to be religious.

The nature of man is such that people consider themselves put under an obligation as much by the benefits they confer as by those they receive.

All who contribute to the overthrow of religion, or to the ruin of kingdoms and commonwealths, all who are foes to letters and to the arts which confer honour and benefit on the human race (among whom I reckon the impious, the cruel, the ignorant, the indolent, the base and the worthless), are held in infamy and detestation.

Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.

The reformer has enemies in all who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order.