“A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.”

The one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not.

The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man.

Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.

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

But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes.

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

Never was anything great achieved without danger.

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.

The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.

We cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either.

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

The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.

God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us.

Benefits ought to be handed ought drop by drop, so that they may be relished the more.

The mind always fails first, not the body. The secret is to make your mind work for you, not against you.

War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it.

When you compete against everyone else, no one wants to help you. But when you compete against yourself, everyone wants to help you.

If you’re not stubborn, you’ll give up on experiments too soon. And if you’re not flexible, you’ll pound your head against the wall and you won’t see a different solution to a problem you’re trying to solve.

How can anyone be against love?

There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you.

There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.