The Prince

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both. Machiavelli's hr manual, still printing.

Everyone sees what you appear to be; few experience what you really are. The first reputation-management guide.

Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception. The book is honest about dishonesty. Rare.

The prince must be a fox and a lion. The lion can't set traps; the fox can't fight wolves.

Men are so simple, and so much inclined to obey present needs, that a deceiver will always find victims. Ouch, forever.

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand than to introduce a new order of things. Every founder's first month.

Fortune is the arbiter of one-half of our actions. Machiavelli leaves half to us. Generous, for 1513.

Mildness vs. cruelty in Bologna, it is much safer to be feared than loved, but avoid being hated. The manual's fine print.

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. One person can be a reset.

Carried out of it: read it as comedy about power. It stops hurting and starts explaining.