Benefits should be granted little by little so that they may be better enjoyed.
One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.
Decide which is the line of conduct that presents the fewest drawbacks and then follow it out as being the best one because one never finds anything perfectly pure and unmixed or exempt from danger.
Wisdom consists in being able to distinguish among dangers and make a choice of the least harmful.
Men are always averse to enterprises in which they foresee difficulties.
Where the willingness is great the difficulties cannot be great.
Where the willingness is great the difficulties cannot be great.
Where the willingness is great the difficulties cannot be great.
Where the willingness is great the difficulties cannot be great.
Where the willingness is great the difficulties cannot be great.
Where the willingness is great the difficulties cannot be great.
Where the willingness is great the difficulties cannot be great.
Where the willingness is great the difficulties cannot be great.
Where the willingness is great the difficulties cannot be great.
One never finds anything perfectly pure and … exempt from danger.
Only those means of security are good are certain are lasting that depend on yourself and your own vigor.
Only those means of security are good are certain are lasting that depend on yourself and your own vigor.
Men are always wicked at bottom unless they are made good by some compulsion.
Where the willingness is great the difficulties cannot be great.
No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
War is just when it is necessary arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.
There is no avoiding war it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.
War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.
To understand the nature of the people one must be a prince, and to understand the nature of the prince, one must be of the people.
Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.
There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.
Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.
He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.
It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.
Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.
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.
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.
Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.
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 yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer to be tricked.
One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.
Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.