Fear is secured by a dread of punishment.

He who has once begun to live by rapine always finds reasons for taking what is not his.

....nothing is so unhealthy or unstable as the reputation for power that is not based on one's own power.

There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new order of things..... Whenever his enemies have occasion to attack the innovator they do so with the passion of partisans, while the others defend him sluggishly so that the innovator and his party alike are vulnerable.

The sinews of war are not gold, but good soldiers.

When 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.

A wise man will see to it that his acts always seem voluntary and not done by compulsion, however much he may be compelled by necessity.