Men are driven by two principal impulses, either by love or by fear.

The line distills a core Machiavellian assumption about political psychology: that human behavior, especially in matters of power and loyalty, is most reliably motivated by strong affective forces rather than by abstract virtue. “Love” suggests voluntary attachment and goodwill, while “fear” implies coercion and the anticipation of punishment. Read in a Machiavellian frame, the claim is less a moral endorsement than a strategic observation: rulers who understand these dominant motives can better predict obedience, betrayal, and stability. The stark binary also signals his tendency to simplify motives to what is politically actionable, prioritizing effectiveness over idealized accounts of human nature.