The Prince

you wish to please me, and to bring success and honour to yourself, do right and study, because others will help you if you help yourself."

Men will not look at things as they really are, but as they wish them to be—and are ruined

Men will not look at things as they really are, but as they wish them to be—and are ruined

For he who innovates will have for his enemies all those who are well off under the existing order of things, and only lukewarm supporters in those who might be better off under the new. This lukewarm temper arises partly from the fear of adversaries who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who will never admit the merit of anything new, until they have seen it proved by the event.

a kind that one does not stand in fear o

, one has to re­mark that men ought either to be well treated or crushed, be­cause they can avenge them­selves of lighter in­jur­ies, of more ser­i­ous ones they can­not; there­fore the in­jury that is to be done to a man ought to be of

who has ac­quired them should go and reside there.

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.

ther of the same coun­try and lan­guage, or they are not.

they are, it is easier to hold them, es­pe­cially when they have not been ac­cus­tomed to self-gov­ern­ment; and to hold them se­curely it is enough to have des­troyed the fam­ily