well. i guess since i put in a passage from 1984, i should throw in my favorite from the prince.
its pg. 67 in the version i've got. machiavelli was actually quite frank and told the unwanted/unspoken truth. its too bad that someone speaking the truth found his place in history as somewhat of an evil guy with brutal tactics.
anywho, here's what stuck out to me:

"The prince should nonetheless make himself feared in such a mode that if he does not acquire love, he escapes hatred, because being feared and not being hated can go together very well. This he will always do if he abstains from the property of his citizens and his subjects, and from their women; and if he also needs to proceed against someone's life, je must do it when there is suitable justification and manifest cause for it. But above all, he must abstain from property of others, because men forget the death of a father more quickly than the loss of a patrimony."

who can deny the validity of that last sentence? yet who would like to claim it as truthful?
see what i mean?