I hold strongly to this: that it is better to be impetuous than circumspect; because fortune is a woman and if she is to be submissive it is necessary to beat and coerce her.

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

One should never fall in the belief that you can find someone to pick you up.

The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.

My view is that it is desirable to be both loved and feared; but it is difficult to achieve both and, if one of them has to be lacking, it is much safer to be feared than loved.

For one change always leaves a dovetail into which another will fit.

He who builds on the people, builds on the mud

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.

It is better to act and repent than not to act and regret.

Everyone who wants to know what will happen ought to examine what has happened: everything in this world in any epoch has their replicas in antiquity.

A prince must not have any other object nor any other thought… but war, its institutions, and its discipline; because that is the only art befitting one who commands.

Men never do good unless necessity drives them to it; but when they are free to choose and can do just as they please, confusion and disorder become rampant.

Half of these aren't even Machiavelli. Some are Plato, Thucydides etc....doesnt anyone check these?

Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel. Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are.

In conclusion, the arms of others either fall from your back, or they weigh you down, or they bind you fast.

He who becomes a Prince through the favour of the people should always keep on good terms with them; which it is easy for him to do, since all they ask is not to be oppressed

There is no avoiding war, it can only be postponed to the advantage of your enemy.

Therefore, it is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares and a lion to terrify the wolves

It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things.

Wisdom consists of knowing how to distinguish the nature of trouble, and in choosing the lesser evil.

Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration.

Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.

He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command

The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.