Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.

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

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.

One can make this generalization about men: they are ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers, they shun danger and are greedy for profit; while you treat them well, they are yours. They would shed their blood for you, risk their property, their lives, their children, so long, as I said above, as danger is remote; but when you are in danger they turn against you.

There is nothing more important than appearing to be religious.

When men receive favours from someone they expected to do them ill, they are under a greater obligation to their benefactor.