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

Before all else, be armed.

....nothing is so unhealthy or unstable as the reputation for power that is not based on one's own power.

For he who innovates will have for his enemies all those who are well off under the existing order of things, and only lukewarm supporters in those who might be better off under the new.

The prince who relies upon their words, without having otherwise provided for his security, is ruined; for friendships that are won by awards, and not by greatness and nobility of soul, although deserved, yet are not real, and cannot be depended upon in time of adversity.

Still, a prince should make himself feared in such a way that if he does not gain love, he at any rate avoids hatred; for fear and the absence of hatred may well go together, and will be always attained by one who abstains from interfering with the property of his citizens and subjects or with their women.

Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.