11 Machiavellian laws you need.

Niccolò Machiavelli was a swell guy… A truly objective and amoral thinker; he saw what needed to be done and did it, in this world that is saying a lot. But the scale of his highly useful advice is only overshadowed by his cryptic style of writing, and his constant use of antiquated metaphors. Fundamentally, there are only 11 rules of his that you need to know and follow! Etch them in to your heart and success will be yours.

• A prince ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline; for this is the sole art that belongs to him who rules, and it is of such force that it not only upholds those who are born princes, but it often enables men to rise from a private station to that rank.
• Necessary it is for a prince to have his foundations well laid, otherwise it follows of necessity he will go to ruin.
  Therefore, he who considers it necessary to secure himself in his new principality, to win friends, to overcome either by force or fraud, to make himself beloved and feared by the people, to be followed and revered by the soldiers, to exterminate those who have power or reason to hurt him, to change the old order of things for new, to be severe and gracious, magnanimous and liberal, to destroy a disloyal soldiery and to create new, to maintain friendship with kings and princes in such a way that they must help him with zeal and offend with caution, cannot find a more lively example than the actions of this man.
• He who believes that new benefits will cause great personages to forget old injuries is deceived.
• Yet it cannot be called talent to slay fellow-citizens, to deceive friends, to be without faith, without mercy, without religion; such methods may gain empire, but not glory.
• A prince ought to live amongst his people in such a way that no unexpected circumstances, whether of good or evil, shall make him change; because if the necessity for this comes in troubled times, you are too late for harsh measures; and mild ones will not help you, for they will be considered as forced from you, and no one will be under any obligation to you for them.
• Opposite desires there arises in cities one of three results, either a principality, self-government, or anarchy.
• There cannot be good laws where the state is not well armed.
• The prince should read histories, and study there the actions of illustrious men, to see how they have borne themselves in war, to examine the causes of their victories and defeat, so as to avoid the latter and imitate the former; and above all do as an illustrious man did, who took as an exemplar one who had been praised and famous before him.
• It is necessary for a prince wishing to hold his own to know how to do wrong, and to make use of it or not according to necessity.
• For something which looks like virtue, if followed, would be his ruin; whilst something else, which looks like vice, yet followed brings him security and prosperity.
• For If a prince is wise he ought not fear the reputation of being mean.