It Is Better To Be

It Makes Him Hated Above All Things, As I Have Said, To Be Rapacious, And To Be A Violator Of The Property And Women Of His Subjects, From Both Of Which He Must Abstain.

Many Have Imagined Republics And Principalities Which Have Never Been Seen Or Known To Exist In Reality; For How We Live Is So Far Removed From How We Ought To Live, That He Who Abandons What Is Done For What Ought To Be Done, Will Rather Bring About His Own Ruin Than His Preservation.

And What Physicians Say About Disease Is Applicable Here: That At The Beginning A Disease Is Easy To Cure But Difficult To Diagnose; But As Time Passes, Not Having Been Recognized Or Treated At The Outset, It Becomes Easy To Diagnose But Difficult To Cure. The Same Thing Occurs In Affairs Of State; For By Recognizing From Afar The Diseases That Are Spreading In The State (which Is A Gift Given Only To The Prudent Ruler), They Can Be Cured Quickly; But When, Not Having Been Recognized, They Are Not Recognized And Are Left To Grow To The Extent That Everyone Recognizes Them, There Is No Longer Any Cure.

He Who Is The Cause Of Another's Advancement Is Thereby The Cause Of His Own Ruin.

The More Sand Has Escaped From The Hourglass Of Our Life, The Clearer We Should See Through It.