I'm fairly certain Niccolo Machiavelli wasn't the greatest guy in the world, but he has some excellent quotes I keep stumbling across.

(Like in Medieval 2: Total War)

Here are some of my favorites:

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

“Before all else, be armed.”

“Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.”

“God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us”

“Politics have no relation to morals.”

“Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions”

“Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.”

“Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.”

“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.”

“It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope”

“There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt”

“You don't avoid such a war, you merely postpone it, to your own disadvantage.”

“He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss.”