Niccolo Machiavelli

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.

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 ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.

Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.

Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.

It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.

Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.

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.

Politics have no relation to morals.

A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.

Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.

Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.

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

He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.

Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.

There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.

There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.

Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.