Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.

You have to be a prince to understand the people, and you have to belong to the people to understand the princes.

But in Republics there is a stronger vitality, a fiercer hatred, a keener thirst for revenge. The memory of their former freedom will not let them rest; so that the safest course is either to destroy them, or to go and live in them.

The one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not.

It may be observed, that provinces amid the vicissitudes to which they are subject, pass from order into confusion, and afterward recur to a state of order again; for the nature of mundane affairs not allowing them to continue in an even course, when they have arrived at their greatest perfection, they soon begin to decline.

Wise men say, and not without reason, that whosoever wished to foresee the future might consult the past.

Hence it comes that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.