The Prince

you wish to please me, and to bring success and honour to yourself, do right and study, because others will help you if you help yourself."

Men will not look at things as they really are, but as they wish them to be—and are ruined

Men will not look at things as they really are, but as they wish them to be—and are ruined

For he who innovates will have for his enemies all those who are well off under the existing order of things, and only lukewarm supporters in those who might be better off under the new. This lukewarm temper arises partly from the fear of adversaries who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who will never admit the merit of anything new, until they have seen it proved by the event.

For my part I con­sider that it is bet­ter to be ad­ven­tur­ous than cau­tious, be­cause for­tune is a wo­man, and if you wish to keep her un­der it is ne­ces­sary to beat and ill-use he

There never was a new prince who has dis­armed his sub­jects; rather when he has found them dis­armed he has al­ways armed them, be­cause, by arm­ing them, those arms be­come yours, those men who were dis­trus­ted be­come faith­ful, and those who were faith­ful are kept so, and your sub­jects be­come your ad­her­ents.

And here it should be noted that hatred is ac­quired as much by good works as by bad ones,

But in re­pub­lics there is more vi­tal­ity, greater hatred, and more de­sire for ven­geance, which will never per­mit them to al­low the memory of their former liberty to rest; so that the safest way is to des­troy them or to reside there

Every­one sees what you ap­pear to be, few really know what you are,

love is pre­served by the link of ob­lig­a­tion which, ow­ing to the base­ness of men, is broken at