"No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution."

"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."

"The people, when they are not restrained by fear, are always ready to commit every kind of excess."

"For there is no other way of guarding oneself from flatterers than by letting men understand that to tell you the truth will not offend you."

"The vulgar are always taken by appearances and by the outcome of a thing; and in the world there are only the vulgar."