"[The prince] will find that some of the things that appear
    be virtues will, if he practices them, ruin him, and some of
    the things that appear to be vices will bring him security 
    and prosperity."

   "If your generosity is good and sincere it may pass unnoticed
    and it will not save you from being reproached for its 
    opposite. If you want to acquire a reputation for generosity,
    therefore, you have to be ostentatiously lavish; and a prince
    acting in that fashion will soon squander all his resources, 
    only to be forced in the end... to lay excessive burden on 
    the people."

   "A prince must not worry if he incurs reproach for his cruelty
    so long as he keeps his subjects united and loyal. By making
    an example or two he will prove more compassionate than those
    who, being too compassionate, allow disorders which lead to 
    murder and rapine."

   "It is not unknown to me how many men have had, and still have, 
    the opinion that the affairs of the world are in such wise 
    governed by fortune and by God that men with their wisdom 
    cannot direct them and that no one can even help them..."

   "...he will be successful who directs his actions according to 
    the spirit of the times, and that he whose actions do not
    accord with the times will not be successful."

   "There never was a new prince who has disarmed his subjects;
    rather when he has found them disarmed he has always armed 
    them, because, by arming them, those arms become yours..."

    - Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), The Prince