Benefits should be conferred gradually; and in that way they will taste better.
Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
Before all else, be armed.
When you disarm your subjects you offend them by showing that either from cowardliness or lack of faith, you distrust them; and either conclusion will induce them to hate you.
For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearance, as though they were realities and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are.
Since, then, a prince is necessitated to play the animal well, he chooses among the beasts the fox and the lion, because the lion does not protect himself from traps; the fox does not protect himself from wolves. The prince must be a fox, therefore, to recognize the traps and a lion to frighten the […]
Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied.
A prince who is not himself wise cannot be wisely advised – good advice depends on the shrewdness of the prince who seeks it.
It is better to be adventurous than cautious, because fortune is a woman.
