Good order makes men bold, and confusion, cowards.

In conclusion, the arms of others either fall from your back, or they weigh you down, or they bind you fast.

Because just as good morals, if they are to be maintained, have need of the laws, so the laws, if they are to be observed, have need of good morals.

(A ruler) cannot and should not keep his word when to do so would go against his interests or when the reason he pledged it no longer holds.

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

A government which does not trust its citizens to be armed is not itself to be trusted.

The answer is, of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved.