Princes And Governments Are Far More Dangerous

Thus It Is Well To Seem Merciful, Faithful, Humane, Sincere, Religious, And Also To Be So; But You Must Have The Mind So Disposed That When It Is Needful To Be Otherwise You May Be Able To Change To The Opposite Qualities.

Men Are Of Three Different Capacities: One Understands Intuitively; Another Understands So Far As It Is Explained; And A Third Understands Neither Of Himself Nor By Explanation. The First Is Excellent, The Second, Commendable, And The Third, Altogether Useless.

Men Nearly Always Follow The Tracks Made By Others And Proceed In Their Affairs By Imitation, Even Though They Cannot Entirely Keep To The Tracks Of Others Or Emulate The Prowess Of Their Models. So A Prudent Man Should Always Follow In The Footsteps Of Great Men And Imitate Those Who Have Been Outstanding.

If You Only Notice Human Proceedings, You May Observe That All Who Attain Great Power And Riches, Make Use Of Either Force Or Fraud; And What They Have Acquired Either By Deceit Or Violence, In Order To Conceal The Disgraceful Methods Of Attainment, They Endeavor To Sanctify With The False Title Of Honest Gains.

He Who Has Annexed Them, If He Wishes To Hold Them, Has Only To Bear In Mind Two Considerations: The One, That The Family Of Their Former Lord Is Extinguished; The Other, That Neither Their Laws Nor Their Taxes Are Altered, So That In A Very Short Time They Will Become Entirely One Body With The Old Principality.