It is much better to tempt fortune where it can favor you than to see your certain ruin by not tempting it.

States that rise quickly, just as all the other things of nature that are born and grow rapidly, cannot have roots and ramifications; the first bad weather kills them

Good order and discipline in any army are to be depended upon more than courage alone.

I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.

A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.

From the latter he is defended by being well armed and having good allies, and if he is well armed he will have good friends, and affairs will always remain quiet within when they are quiet without, unless they should have been already disturbed by conspiracy; and even should affairs outside be disturbed, if he has carried out his preparations and has lived as I have said, as long as he does not despair, he will resist every attack.

A blast in the human breast is nothing to boast of.