It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.

I consider it a mark of great prudence in a man to abstain from threats or any contemptuous expressions, for neither of these weaken the enemy, but threats make him more cautious, and the other excites his hatred, and a desire to revenge himself

For as laws are necessary that good manners be preserved, so there is need of good manners that law may be maintained

Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions

The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it

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

The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him

States that rise quickly, just as all the other things of nature that are born and grow rapidly, cannot have roots and ramifications; the first bad weather kills them

Many have imagined republics and principalities which have never been seen or known to exist in reality; for how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live, that he who abandons what is done for what ought to be done, will rather bring aboutwant to be both before I'm done

A son could bear complacently the death of his father while the loss of his inheritance might drive him to despair