When men receive favours from someone they expected to do them ill, they are under a greater obligation to their benefactor.
Niccolo MachiavelliResults are often obtained by impetuosity and daring which could never have been obtained by ordinary methods.
Niccolo MachiavelliIt is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.
Niccolo MachiavelliWhen you disarm your subjects, however, you offend them by showing that either from cowardliness or lack of faith, you distrust them; and either conclusion will induce them to hate you.
Niccolo MachiavelliAs all those have shown who have discussed civil institutions, and as every history is full of examples, it is necessary to whoever arranges to found a Republic and establish laws in it, to presuppose that all men are bad and that they will use their malignity of mind every time they have the opportunity.
Niccolo Machiavelli