"A wise prince, therefore, ought to find a means by which his subjects will always in every sort and kind of circumstance have need of the state and of him, and then they will always be faithful to him…"

"Men are by nature much more inclined to evil than to good; and therefore, if you would have the good, you must put them under the necessity of being so."

"The wise man does at once what the fool does finally."

"The Roman state was ruined by the ambition of the people as much as by the ambition of the nobility."

"It is necessary for a prince wishing to hold his own to know how to do wrong, and to make use of it or not according to necessity."