Without doubt, ferocious and disordered men are much weaker than timid and ordered ones. For order chases fear from men and disorder lessens ferocity.
The sinews of war are not gold, but good soldiers; for gold alone will not procure good soldiers, but good soldiers will always procure gold.
Rome remained free for four hundred years and Sparta eight hundred, although their citizens were armed all that time; but many other states that have been disarmed have lost their liberties in less than forty years.
The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love.
The answer is, of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved.
Occasionally words must serve to veil the facts. But let this happen in such a way that no one become aware of it; or, if it should be noticed, excuses must be at hand to be produced immediately.
When they remain in garrison, soldiers are maintained with fear and punishment; when they are then led to war, with hope and reward.
Knowing how to fight made men more bold, because no one fears doing what it seems to him he has learned to do. Therefore, the ancients wanted their citizens to be trained in every warlike action.
The end of the republic is to enervate and to weaken all other bodies so as to increase its own body.
You must know, then, that there are two methods of fighting, the one by law, the other by force: the first method is that of men, the second of beasts; but as the first method is often insufficient, one must have recourse to the second.
Then also pretexts for seizing property are never wanting, and one who begins to live by rapine will always find some reason for taking the goods of others, whereas causes for taking life are rarer and more quickly destroyed.
I say that every prince must desire to be considered merciful and not cruel. He must, however, take care not to misuse this mercifulness.
It makes him hated above all things, as I have said, to be rapacious, and to be a violator of the property and women of his subjects, from both of which he must abstain.
Since the handling of arms is a beautiful spectacle, it is delightful to young men.
A battle that you win cancels any other bad action of yours. In the same way, by losing one, all the good things worked by you before become vain.
One should never allow chaos to develop in order to avoid going to war, because one does not avoid a war but instead puts it off to his disadvantage.
Results are often obtained by impetuosity and daring which could never have been obtained by ordinary methods.
A prince ought to have two fears, one from within, on account of his subjects, the other from without, on account of external powers.
Speaking generally, men are ungrateful, fickle, hypocritical, fearful odanger and covetous ogain.
The one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not.