The Prince

you wish to please me, and to bring success and honour to yourself, do right and study, because others will help you if you help yourself."

Men will not look at things as they really are, but as they wish them to be—and are ruined

Men will not look at things as they really are, but as they wish them to be—and are ruined

For he who innovates will have for his enemies all those who are well off under the existing order of things, and only lukewarm supporters in those who might be better off under the new. This lukewarm temper arises partly from the fear of adversaries who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who will never admit the merit of anything new, until they have seen it proved by the event.

if he wishes to hold them, has only to bear in mind two con­sid­er­a­tions: the one, that the fam­ily of their former lord is ex­tin­guished; the other, that neither their laws nor their taxes are altered, so that in a very short time they will be­come en­tirely one body with the old prin­cip­al­ity

it is far bet­ter to earn the con­fid­ence of the people than to rely on fort­resses

people do not wish to be ruled nor op­pressed by the nobles, and the nobles wish to rule and op­press the people; and from these two op­pos­ite de­sires there arises in cit­ies one of three res­ults, either a prin­cip­al­ity, self-gov­ern­ment, or an­archy.

cause men, when they re­ceive good from him of whom they were ex­pect­ing evil, are bound more closely to their be­ne­factor

there are three classes of in­tel­lects: one which com­pre­hends by it­self; an­other which ap­pre­ci­ates what oth­ers com­pre­hen­ded; and a third which neither com­pre­hends by it­self nor by the show­ing of oth­ers; the first is the most ex­cel­lent, the second is good, the third is use­less.

men will al­ways prove un­true to you un­less they are kept hon­est by con­straint.