Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli Quotes
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A son can bear with equanimity the loss of his father, but the loss of his inheritance may drive him to despair.
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Change has no constituency.
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It is much better to tempt fortune where it can favor you than to see your certain ruin by not tempting it.
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Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever shall be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same results.
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Men are able to assist fortune but not to thwart her. They can weave her designs, but they cannot destroy them.
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If the course of human affairs be considered, it will be seen that many things arise against which heaven does not allow us to guard.
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The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms.
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Tardiness often robs us opportunity, and the dispatch of our forces.
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Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration.
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The greatest remedy that is used against a plan of the enemy is to do voluntarily what he plans that you do by force.
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Therefore it is unnecessary for a prince to have all the good qualities I have enumerated, but it is very necessary to appear to have them.
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One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.
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A son could bear with great complacency, the death of his father, while the loss of his inheritance might drive him to despair.
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...it behooves us to adapt oneself to the times if one wants to enjoy continued good fortune.
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The end of the republic is to enervate and to weaken all other bodies so as to increase its own body.
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A prince who is not himself wise cannot be wisely advised. . . . Good advice depends on the shrewdness of the prince who seeks it, and not the shrewdness of the prince on good advice.
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Results are often obtained by impetuosity and daring which could never have been obtained by ordinary methods.
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...people are by nature fickle, and it is easy to persuade them of something, but difficult to keep them persuaded.
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There is nothing as likely to succeed as what the enemy believes you cannot attempt.
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The vulgar crowd always is taken by appearances, and the world consists chiefly of the vulgar.
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Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please.
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And when neither their property nor honour is touched, the majority of men live content, and he has only to contend with the ambition of a few, whom he can curb with ease in many ways.
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A man who wishes to make a profession of goodness in everything must necessarily come to grief among so many who are not good. Therefore, it is necessary for a prince, who wishes to maintain himself, to learn how not to be good, and to use this knowledge and not use it according to the necessity of the case.
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Men are driven by two principal impulses, either by love or by fear.