"Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others."

"A prince must have no other object, no other thought, nor take anything else for his art, but war and its orders and discipline; for this is the only art that belongs to him who rules."

"For of men it may generally be affirmed that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and as long as you succeed they are entirely yours, offering you their blood, their property, their…"

"He who desires to rule, must be prepared to use fraud and deceit."

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