The aim of the people is more honest than that of the nobility, the latter desiring to oppress, and the former merely to avoid oppression.

... On the whole, the best fortress you can have, is in not being hated by your subjects. If they hate you no fortress will save you...

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.

One who begins to live by rapine will always find some reason for taking the goods of others

...for monarchy easily becomes tyranny, aristocracy easily becomes oligarchy, and democracy easily converts to anarchy. Thus anyone organizing a government according to one of the good forms does so for but a short time, because no precaution will prevent it from slipping into its opposite, so closely are the virtues and vices of the two related.

....for friendships that are acquired by a price and not by greatness and nobility of character are purchased but are not owned, and at the proper moment they cannot be spent.

....nothing is so unhealthy or unstable as the reputation for power that is not based on one's own power.

....it cannot be called ingenuity to kill one's fellow citizens, to betray friends, to be without faith, without mercy, without religion; by these means one can aquire power but not glory.