Niccolo Machiavelli

Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.

Whoever conquers a free town and does not demolish it commits a great error and may expect to be ruined himself.

The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.

If this TV success had come in my twenties and I'd become a heart-throb, I would have been very stupid. I would have got into a lot of situations that I really wished I hadn't.

The only thing I command is respect.

In a republic, that paradise of debility, the politician is a petty tyrant who obeys the laws.