From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved more than feared, or feared more than loved. The reply is, that one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to be wanting.
~ Niccolò Machiavelli

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Well-ordered states and wise princes have taken every care not to drive the nobles to desperation, and to keep the people satisfied and contented, for this is one of the most important objects a prince can have.
~ Niccolò Machiavelli

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It should be noted that hatred is acquired as much by good works as by bad ones, therefore, as I said before, a prince wishing to keep his state is very often forced to do evil.
~ Niccolò Machiavelli

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It is the nature of men to be bound by the benefits they confer as much as by those they receive.
~ Niccolò Machiavelli

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It is easier for the prince to make friends of those men who were contented under the former government, and are therefore his enemies, than of those who, being discontented with it, were favourable to him and encouraged him to seize it.
~ Niccolò Machiavelli

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Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
~ Niccolò Machiavelli

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That which is good for the enemy harms you, and that which is good for you harms the enemy.
~ Niccolò Machiavelli

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Fear of evil is greater than the evil itself.
~ Niccolò Machiavelli

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A prince who is not wise himself will never take good advice.
~ Niccolò Machiavelli

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Everybody sees what you seem, but few know what thou art.
~ Niccolò Machiavelli

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