Niccolo Machiavelli

He who has not first laid his foundations may be able with great ability to lay them afterwards, but they will be laid with trouble to the architect and danger to the building.

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

War cannot be avoided; it can only be postponed to the other's advantage.

Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied.

War is a profession by which a man cannot live honorably; an employment by which the soldier, if he would reap any profit, is obliged to be false, rapacious, and cruel.

...it is a base thing to look to others for your defense instead of depending upon yourself. That defense alone is effectual, sure, and durable which depends upon yourself and your own valor.

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.

There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.

He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss.

Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel. Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are.

...people are by nature fickle, and it is easy to persuade them of something, but difficult to keep them persuaded.

Nothing feeds upon itself as liberality does.

Hatred may be engendered by good deeds as well as bad ones.

God creates men, but they choose each other.

To be feared is much safer then to be loved.

One must be a fox in order to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten off wolves.

Is necessary to take such measures that, when they believe no longer, it may be possible to make them believe by force.

We have not seen great things done in our time except by those who have been considered mean; the rest have failed.

There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantages of others.

So as a prince is forced to know how to act like a beast, he must learn from the fox and the lion; becouse the lion is defenceless against traps and the fox is defenceless against wolves. Therefore one must be a fox in order to recognise traps and lion to frighten off wolves.