Few men are brave by nature, but good discipline and experience make many so.
For, besides what has been said, it should be borne in mind that the temper of the multitude is fickle, and that while it is easy to persuade them of a thing, it is hard to fix them in that persuasion.
The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.
Because just as good morals, if they are to be maintained, have need of the laws, so the laws, if they are to be observed, have need of good morals.
For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are.
It is necessary that the prince should know how to color his nature well, and how to be a hypocrite and dissembler. For men are so simple, and yield so much to immediate necessity, that the deceiver will never lack dupes.
In order not to annul our free will, I judge it true that Fortune may be mistress of one half our actions but then even she leaves the other half, or almost, under our control.
There are three kinds of brains: One understands of itself, another can be taught to understand, and the third can neither understand to itself or be taught to understand.
Only those means of security are good, are certain, are lasting, that depend on yourself and your own vigor.
Republics have a longer life and enjoy better fortune than principalities, because they can profit by their greater internal diversity. They are the better able to meet emergencies.
In conclusion, the arms of others either fall from your back, or they weigh you down, or they bind you fast.
The Swiss are well armed and enjoy great freedom.
All the States and Governments by which men are or ever have been ruled, have been and are either Republics or Princedoms.
Men walk almost always in the paths trodden by others, proceeding in their actions by imitation.
There should be many judges, for few will always do the will of few.
For as laws are necessary that good manners be preserved, so there is need of good manners that law may be maintained.
They have not any difficulties on the way up because they fly, but they have many when they reach the summit.
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.
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.
Wise men say, and not without reason, that whosoever wished to foresee the future might consult the past.