...people are by nature fickle, and it is easy to persuade them of something, but difficult to keep them persuaded.

Nothing feeds upon itself as liberality does.

It is better to be bold than too circumspect, because fortune is of a sex which likes not a tardy wooer and repulses all who are not ardent.

The world has always been the same; and there is always as much good fortune as bad in it.

It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.

In our own days we have seen no princes accomplish great results save those who have been accounted miserly.

The reply is, that one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to be wanting. For it may be said of men in general that they are ungrateful, voluble, dissemblers, anxious to avoid danger, and covetous of gain; as long as you benefit them, they are entirely yours; they offer you their blood, their goods, their life, and their children, as I have before said, when the necessity is remote; but when it approaches, they revolt.