"Necessities can be many, but the one..." - Quote by Niccolo Machiavelli

“When every province of the world so teems with inhabitants that they can neither subsist where they are nor remove themselves elsewhere.”

“For among other evils caused by being disarmed, it renders you contemptible; which is one of those disgraceful things which a prince must guard against.”

“A prince... must learn from the fox and the lion... One must be a fox in order to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten off wolves. Those who act simply as lions are stupid. So it follows that a prudent ruler cannot, and must not, honour his word when it places him at a disadvantage and when the reasons for which he made his promise no longer exist.”

“The superfluous, a very necessary thing.”

“Only necessity understood, and bondage to the highest is identical with true freedom.”

“The scaffolding must be removed once the house is built.”

“If we win, nobody will care. If we lose, there will be nobody to care.”

“In time of war, soldiers, however sensible, care a great deal more on some occasions about slaking their thirst than about the danger of enteric fever. Better known as typhoid, the disease is often spread by drinking contaminated water.”

“The only thing he could do to stay alive was not to allow himself the anguish of that memory. He erased it from his mind, although from time to time in the years that were left to him he would feel it revive, with no warning and for no reason, like the sudden pang of an old scar.”