All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it's impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes o… - Niccolò Machiavelli

Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.

good individuals cannot exist without good education, and good education cannot exist without good laws,

... By disarming, you at once give offense, since you show your subjects that you distrust them, either as doubting their courage, or as doubting their fidelity, each of which imputations begets hatred against you.

it is much safer to be feared than loved because ...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.