Machiavelli

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

Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.

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.

Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration.

States that rise quickly, just as all the other things of nature that are born and grow rapidly, cannot have roots and ramifications; the first bad weather kills them.

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.

Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.

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

A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise.

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.