Knowing how to fight made men more bold, because no one fears doing what it seems to him he has learned to do. Therefore, the ancients wanted their citizens to be trained in every warlike action.

The prince must be a lion, but he must also know how to play the fox.

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

Hence it comes that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.

Men are always wicked at bottom unless they are made good by some compulsion.

Conquered states that have been accustomed to liberty and the government of their own laws can be held by the conqueror in three different ways. The first is to ruin them; the second, for the conqueror to go and reside there in person; and the third is to allow them to continue to live under their own laws, subject to a regular tribute, and to create in them a government of a few, who will keep the country friendly to the conqueror

The unarmed man is not just defenseless - he is also contemptible.