I read "The Prince" after reading a science fiction short, "That share of glory", because it contained one of my favorite quotes after Montrose's Toast*:
“God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

Once in awhile I'll go looking for new (to me) Machiavelli quotes. Here's where I got that one:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1...


Some more I find currently relevant:

“The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

“One should never fall in the belief that you can find someone to pick you up.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli

“But when you disarm them, you at once offend them by showing that you distrust them, either for cowardice or for want of loyalty, and either of these opinions breeds hatred against you.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

"Anyone who studies present and ancient affairs will easily see how in all cities and all peoples there still exist, and have always existed, the same desires and passions. Thus, it is an easy matter for him who carefully examines past events to foresee future events in a republic and to apply the remedies employed by the ancients, or, if old remedies cannot be found, to devise new ones based upon the similarity of the events. But since these matters are neglected or not understood by those who read, or, if understood, remain unknown to those who govern, the result is that the same problems always exist in every era.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli

*Montrose's Toast: "He either fears his fate too much, or his desserts are small, who will not put it to the touch, to win or lose it all."