Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli Quotes
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There is nothing as likely to succeed as what the enemy believes you cannot attempt.
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...the wise man should always follow the roads that have been trodden by the great, and imitate those who have most excelled, so that if he cannot reach their perfection, he may at least acquire something of its savour.
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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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The vulgar crowd always is taken by appearances, and the world consists chiefly of the vulgar.
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There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.
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Delusion gives you more happiness than truth gives to me. For injuries ought to be done all at one time, so that, being tasted less, they offend less; benefits ought to be given little by little, so that the flavour of them may last longer.
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A battle that you win cancels any other bad action of yours. In the same way, by losing one, all the good things worked by you before become vain.
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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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The people resemble a wild beast, which, naturally fierce and accustomed to live in the woods, has been brought up, as it were, in a prison and in servitude, and having by accident got its liberty, not being accustomed to search for its food, and not knowing where to conceal itself, easily becomes the prey of the first who seeks to incarcerate it again.
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And truly it is a very natural and ordinary thing to desire to acquire, and always, when men do it who can, they will be praised or not blamed; but when they cannot, and wish to do it anyway, here lies the error and the blame.
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The prince who relies upon their words, without having otherwise provided for his security, is ruined; for friendships that are won by awards, and not by greatness and nobility of soul, although deserved, yet are not real, and cannot be depended upon in time of adversity.
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Ability and perseverance are the weapons of weakness.
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Human beings remain constant in their methods of conduct.
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Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.
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It is better to be bold than too circumspect, because fortune is of a sex which likes not a tardy wooer and repulses all who are not ardent.
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So long as the great majority of men are not deprived of either property or honor, they are satisfied.
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Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.
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A prince is also respected when he is a true friend and a true enemy; that is, when he declares himself on the side of one prince against another without any reservation.
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It is better to act and repent than not to act and regret.
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There is nothing more important than appearing to be religious.
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Any harm you do to a man should be done in such a way that you need not fear his revenge.
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The nature of man is such that people consider themselves put under an obligation as much by the benefits they confer as by those they receive.
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God and nature have thrown all human fortunes into the midst of mankind; and they are thus attainable rather by rapine than by industry, by wicked actions rather than by good. Hence it is that men feed upon each other, and those who cannot defend themselves must be worried.
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It makes him hated above all things, as I have said, to be rapacious, and to be a violator of the property and women of his subjects, from both of which he must abstain.