The question is, then, do we try to make things easy on ourselves or do we try to make things easy on our customers, whoever they may be?

And here comes in the question whether it is better to be loved rather than feared, or feared rather than loved. It might perhaps be answered that we should wish to be both; but since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved....I sum up by saying that since his being loved depends upon his subjects, while his being feared depends upon himself, [one] should build on what is his own, and not on what rests with others.

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

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