For that reason, let a prince have the credit of conquering and holding his state, the means will always be considered honest, and he will be praised by everybody
    because the vulgar are always taken by what a thing seems to be and by what comes of it;
    and in the world there are only the vulgar, for the few find a place there only when the many have no ground to rest on. 

One prince 1 of the present time, whom it is not well to name, never preaches anything else but peace and good faith, and to both he is most hostile, and either, if he had kept it, would have deprived him of reputation and kingdom many a time.

High