"The fact is that a man who..." - Quote by Niccolo Machiavelli

“Although deceit is detestable in all other things, yet in the conduct of war it is laudable and honorable; and a commander who vanquishes an enemy by stratagem is equally praised with one who gains victory by force.”

“Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.”

“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.”

“Where I cannot be moral, my power is gone.”

“No weapon has ever settled a moral problem. It can impose a solution but it cannot guarantee it to be a just one. You can wipe out your opponents. But if you do it unjustly you become eligible for being wiped out yourself.”

“Caesar was a man of great common sense and good taste, meaning thereby a man without originality or moral courage.”

“The two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light.”

“It is virtue, virtue, which both creates and preserves friendship. On it depends harmony of interest, permanence, fidelity.”

“Virtue cannot dwell with wealth either in a city or in a house.”