He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.
I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.
It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.
Men are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer to be tricked.
Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.
Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.
Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.
Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.
It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.
Never was anything great achieved without danger.
No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.
One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.
One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.