How we live is so different from how we ought to live that he who studies what ought to be done rather than what is done will learn the way to his do… - Niccolò Machiavelli

Yet the way men live is so far removed from the way they ought to live that anyone who abandons what is for what should be pursues his downfall rather than his preservation

The innovator makes enemies of all those who prospered under the old order, and only lukewarm support is forthcoming from those who would prosper under the new.

If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.

And although one should not reason about Moses, as he was a mere executor of things that had been ordered for him by God, nonetheless he should be admired if only for that grace which made him deserving of speaking with God.