Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli Quotes
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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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Men as a whole judge more with their eyes than with their hands.
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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.
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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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Nature creates few men brave, industry and training makes many.
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If the chief party, whether it be the people, or the army, or the nobility, which you think most useful and of most consequence to you for the conservation of your dignity, be corrupt, you must follow their humor and indulge them, and in that case honesty and virtue are pernicious.
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Gold will not always get you good soldiers, but good soldiers can get you gold.
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A prince must not have any other object nor any other thought… but war, its institutions, and its discipline; because that is the only art befitting one who commands.
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Few men are brave by nature, but good discipline and experience make many so.
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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 are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer to be tricked.
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One must consider the final result...
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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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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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There should be many judges, for few will always do the will of few.
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For without invention, no one was ever a great man in his own trade.
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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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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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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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Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.
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When neither their property nor their honor is touched, the majority of men live content.
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Before all else, be armed.
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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...