Niccolo Machiavelli

The innovator has for enemies all who have done well under the old, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.

Men generally decide upon a middle course, which is most hazardous, for they know neither how to be entirely good nor entirely bad.

Thus it happens in matters of state; for knowing afar off (which it is only given a prudent man to do) the evils that are brewing, they are easily cured. But when, for want of such knowledge, they are allowed to grow so that everyone can recognize them, there is no longer any remedy to be found.

How perilous it is to free a people who prefer slavery.

He who has annexed them [some principalities], if he wishes to hold them, has only to bear in mind two considerations: the one that the family of the former lord is extinguished: the other that neither their laws not their taxes are altered.

All the States and Governments by which men are or ever have been ruled, have been and are either Republics or Princedoms.

Nature creates few men brave, industry and training makes many.

I hope and hoping feeds my pain <br />I weep and weeping feeds my failing heart<br />I laugh but the laughter does not pass within<br />I burn but the burning makes no mark outside

Men seldom rise from low condition to high rank without employing either force or fraud, unless that rank should be attained either by gift or inheritance.

There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new order of things..... Whenever his enemies have occasion to attack the innovator they do so with the passion of partisans, while the others defend him sluggishly so that the innovator and his party alike are vulnerable.

It is better to be adventurous than cautious, because fortune is a woman.

Whoever is the cause of another becoming powerful, is ruined himself; for that power is produced by him either through craft or force; and both of these are suspected by the one who has been raised to power.

A prince must be prudent enough to know how to escape the bad reputation of those vices that would lose the state for him, and must protect himself from those that will not lose it for him, if this is possible; but if he cannot, he need not concern himself unduly if he ignores these less serious vices.

I consider it a mark of great prudence in a man to abstain from threats or any contemptuous expressions, for neither of these weaken the enemy, but threats make him more cautious, and the other excites his hatred, and a desire to revenge himself.

Men are more apt to be mistaken in their generalizations than in their particular observations.

Many have dreamed up republics and principalities that have never in truth been known to exist; the gulf between how one should live and how one does live is so wide that a man who neglects what is actually done for what should be done learns the way to self-destruction rather than self-preservation.

the wise man should always follow the roads that have been trodden by the great, and imitate those who have most excelled, so that if he cannot reach their perfection, he may at least acquire something of its savour.

Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception.

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.

....for friendships that are acquired by a price and not by greatness and nobility of character are purchased but are not owned, and at the proper moment they cannot be spent.

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

....it cannot be called ingenuity to kill one's fellow citizens, to betray friends, to be without faith, without mercy, without religion; by these means one can aquire power but not glory.

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

Therefore it is unnecessary for a prince to have all the good qualities I have enumerated, but it is very necessary to appear to have them.

One should never permit a disorder to persist in order to avoid a war, for wars cannot be avoided and can only be deferred to the advantage of others.

So long as the great majority of men are not deprived of either property or honor, they are satisfied.

It is better to be bold than too circumspect, because fortune is of a sex which likes not a tardy wooer and repulses all who are not ardent.

A prince must not have any objective nor any thought, nor take up any art, other than the art of war and its ordering and discipline; because it is the only art that pertains to him who commands. And it is of such virtue that not only does it maintain those who were born princes, but many times makes men rise to that rank from private station.

He who builds on the people, builds on the mud

Human beings remain constant in their methods of conduct.