....those who become princes through their skill acquire the pricipality with difficulty, buy they hold onto it with ease.

Ability and perseverance are the weapons of weakness.

The sinews of war are not gold, but good soldiers.

Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.

In respect to foresight and firmness, the people are more prudent, more stable, and have better judgement than princes.

When every province of the world so teems with inhabitants that they can neither subsist where they are nor remove themselves elsewhere.

There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.