Is it better to be loved or feared?

..it happens in all human affairs that we never seek to escape one mischief without falling into another. Prudence therefore consists in knowing how to distinguish degrees of disadvantage, and in accepting a less evil as a good.

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

... If in other respects the old condition of things be continued, and there be no discordance in their customs, men live peaceably with one another...

Injuries, therefore, should be inflicted all at once, that their ill savour being less lasting may the less offend; whereas, benefits should be conferred little by little, that so they may be more fully relished.

For he who quells disorder by a very few signal examples will in the end be more merciful than he who from too great leniency permits things to take their course and so to result in rapine and bloodshed; for these hurt the whole State, whereas the severities of the Prince injure individuals only.

Hay dos maneras de combatir: una con leyes y otra con la fuerza, la primera es propia del hombre, la segunda es de los animales, pero como muchas veces la primera no basta conviene recurrir a la segunda.