We cannot go to heaven in featherbeds.

In the first place, most princes apply themselves to the arts of war, in which I have neither ability nor interest, instead of to the good arts of peace. They are generally more set on acquiring new kingdoms by hook or by crook than on governing well those that they already have.

Friendship demands attention.

. . . the state of things and the dispositions of men were then such, that a man could not well tell whom he might trust or whom he might fear.

It is naturally given to all men to esteem their own inventions best.

There are dreadful punishments enacted against thieves, but it were much better to make such good provisions by which every man might be put in a method how to live, and so be preserved from the fatal necessity of stealing and of dying for it.

I would uphold the law if for no other reason but to protect myself.