 A son can bear with equanimity the loss of his father, but the loss of his inheritance may drive him to despair. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present. |
| The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love. |
| The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow. |
| If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared. |
| Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great. |
| Politics have no relation to morals. |
| 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. |
| Whoever conquers a free town and does not demolish it commits a great error and may expect to be ruined himself. |
| He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command. |
| I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it. |
| It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved. |
| The wise man does at once what the fool does finally. |
| A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise. |
| Never was anything great achieved without danger. |
| Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking. |
| Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions. |
| It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles. |
