"There are three kinds of intellects: one understands things by itself, the other discerns what others understand, and the third understands neither by itself nor through others. The first is excellent…"

"One ought never to allow disorders to take their course for the sake of avoiding war, for war is not thereby avoided, but only deferred to your disadvantage."

"To conquer a people, and then not to live among them, is to lose them."

"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 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…"