Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli Quotes
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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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Men as a whole judge more with their eyes than with their hands.
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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.
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All who contribute to the overthrow of religion, or to the ruin of kingdoms and commonwealths, all who are foes to letters and to the arts which confer honour and benefit on the human race (among whom I reckon the impious, the cruel, the ignorant, the indolent, the base and the worthless), are held in infamy and detestation.
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Men are driven by two principal impulses, either by love or by fear.
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The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.
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I desire to go to Hell and not to Heaven. In the former I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings and princes, while in the latter are only beggars, monks and apostles...
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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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...it behooves us to adapt oneself to the times if one wants to enjoy continued good fortune.
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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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He who has annexed them, if he wishes to hold them, has only to bear in mind two considerations: the one, that the family of their former lord is extinguished; the other, that neither their laws nor their taxes are altered, so that in a very short time they will become entirely one body with the old principality.
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Only those means of security are good, are certain, are lasting, that depend on yourself and your own vigor.
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It is better to act and repent than not to act and regret.
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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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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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All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it's impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.
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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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Every little advantage is of great moment when men have to come to blows.
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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 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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A prince... must learn from the fox and the lion... One must be a fox in order to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten off wolves. Those who act simply as lions are stupid. So it follows that a prudent ruler cannot, and must not, honour his word when it places him at a disadvantage and when the reasons for which he made his promise no longer exist.
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We have not seen great things done in our time except by those who have been considered mean; the rest have failed.
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The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow.
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Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.