Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli Quotes
-
One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.
-
Wisdom consists of knowing how to distinguish the nature of trouble, and in choosing the lesser evil.
-
Although deceit is detestable in all other things, yet in the conduct of war it is laudable and honorable; and a commander who vanquishes an enemy by stratagem is equally praised with one who gains victory by force.
-
He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss.
-
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.
-
Results are often obtained by impetuosity and daring which could never have been obtained by ordinary methods.
-
A battle that you win cancels all your mistakes.
-
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.
-
Then also pretexts for seizing property are never wanting, and one who begins to live by rapine will always find some reason for taking the goods of others, whereas causes for taking life are rarer and more quickly destroyed.
-
God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us.
-
It is a foolish prince who entrusts the safety of his lands to hired men.
-
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.
-
A blast in the human breast is nothing to boast of.
-
With difficulty he is beaten who can estimate his own forces and those of his enemy.
-
One should never permit a disorder to persist in order to avoid a war, for wars cannot be avoided and can only be deferred to the advantage of others.
-
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.
-
Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.
-
Never do an enemy a small injury.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasion for it.
-
In order not to annul our free will, I judge it true that Fortune may be mistress of one half our actions but then even she leaves the other half, or almost, under our control.
-
By the delusions of seeming good the people are often misled to desire their own ruin; and they are frequently influenced by great hopes and brave promises.
-
And here one must not that hatred is acquired just as much by means of good actions as by bad ones; and so, as I said above, if a prince wishes to maintain the state, he is often obliged not to be good; because whenever that group which you believe you need to support you is corrupted, whether it be the common people, the soldiers, or the nobles, it is to your advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them; and then good actions are your enemy.