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 not have any objective nor any thought, nor take up any art, other than the art of war and its ordering and discipline; because it is the only art that pertains to him who commands. And it is of such virtue that not only does it maintain those who were born princes, but many times makes men rise to that rank from private station.

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

For without invention, no one was ever a great man in his own trade.

There is nothing as likely to succeed as what the enemy believes you cannot attempt.

He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss.

Everyone who wants to know what will happen ought to examine what has happened: everything in this world in any epoch has their replicas in antiquity.