Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli Quotes
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Good order and discipline in any army are to be depended upon more than courage alone.
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To know well the nature of the people one must be a prince, and to know well the nature of princes one must be of the people.
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Men as a whole judge more with their eyes than with their hands.
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Anyone who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it may expect to be destroyed by it; for such a city may always justify rebellion in the name of liberty and its ancient institutions.
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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.
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No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
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It is a true observation of ancient writers, that as men are apt to be cast down by adversity, so they, are easily satiated with prosperity, and that joy and grief produce the same effects. For whenever men are not obliged by necessity to fight they fight from ambition, which is so powerful a passion in the human breast that however high we reach we are never satisfied.
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He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.
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Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel. Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are.
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The prince must be a lion, but he must also know how to play the fox.
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One must consider the final result...
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Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.
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How we live is so different from how we ought to live that he who studies what ought to be done rather than what is done will learn the way to his downfall rather than to his preservation.
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Wisdom consists of knowing how to distinguish the nature of trouble, and in choosing the lesser evil.
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It is the duty of a man of honor to teach others the good which he has not been able to do himself because of the malignity of the times, that this good finally can be done by another more loved in heaven.
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Nothing is of greater importance in time of war than in knowing how to make the best use of a fair opportunity when it is offered.
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The prince must consider, as has been in part said before, how to avoid those things which will make him hated or contemptible; and as often as he shall have succeeded he will have fulfilled his part, and he need not fear any danger in other reproaches.
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I believe that it is possible for one to praise, without concern, any man after he is dead since every reason and supervision for adulation is lacking.
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One should never allow chaos to develop in order to avoid going to war, because one does not avoid a war but instead puts it off to his disadvantage...
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For without invention, no one was ever a great man in his own trade.
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There should be many judges, for few will always do the will of few.
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When neither their property nor their honor is touched, the majority of men live content.
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Never was anything great achieved without danger.
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Before all else, be armed.