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

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.

It is of the greatest important in this world that a man should know himself, and the measure of his own strength and means; and he who knows that he has not a genius for fighting must learn how to govern by the arts of peace.

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

If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.

I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.