Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.
Men are always wicked at bottom unless they are made good by some compulsion.
There is no avoiding war it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.
It is a common fault of men not to reckon on storms in fair weather.
It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.
No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.
There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.
Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.
Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.
Men are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer to be tricked.
He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.
Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.
Considering thus how much honor is awarded to antiquity, and how many times—letting pass infinite other examples—a fragment of an ancient statue has been bought at high price because someone wants to...
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 o...
Politics have no relation to morals.
Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.
A prince need take little account of conspiracies if the people are disposed in his favor.