Men generally decide upon a middle course, which is most hazardous, for they know neither how to be entirely good nor entirely bad.

A prince... must learn from the fox and the lion... One must be a fox in order to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten off wolves. Those who act simply as lions are stupid. So it follows that a prudent ruler cannot, and must not, honour his word when it places him at a disadvantage and when the reasons for which he made his promise no longer exist.

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

One never finds anything perfectly pure and ... exempt from danger.

it is better to act and repent than not to act and regret.

Benefits should be granted little by little, so that they may be better enjoyed.

War is a profession by which a man cannot live honorably; an employment by which the soldier, if he would reap any profit, is obliged to be false, rapacious, and cruel.