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The reply is, that one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to be wanting. For it may be said of men in general that they are ungrateful, voluble, dissemblers, anxious to avoid danger, and covetous of gain; as long as you benefit them, they are entirely yours; they offer you their blood, their goods, their life, and their children, as I have before said, when the necessity is remote; but when it approaches, they revolt.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
For a prince should have two fears: one, internal concerning his subjects; the other, external, concerning foreign powers. From the latter he can always defend himself by his good troops and friends; and he will always have good friends if he has good troops.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
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All the States and Governments by which men are or ever have been ruled, have been and are either Republics or Princedoms.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
Still, a prince should make himself feared in such a way that if he does not gain love, he at any rate avoids hatred; for fear and the absence of hatred may well go together, and will be always attained by one who abstains from interfering with the property of his citizens and subjects or with their women.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
There are three kinds of brains. The one understands things unassisted, the other understands things when shown by others, the third understands neither alone nor with the explanations of others.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
Conquered states that have been accustomed to liberty and the government of their own laws can be held by the conqueror in three different ways. The first is to ruin them; the second, for the conqueror to go and reside there in person; and the third is to allow them to continue to live under their own laws, subject to a regular tribute, and to create in them a government of a few, who will keep the country friendly to the conqueror...
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
There is nothing so difficult or so dangerous as to undertake to change the order of things.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
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The princes who have done great things are the ones who have taken little account of their promises.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
...it is much safer to be feared than loved because ...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
The forces of adversaries are more diminished by the loss of those who flee than of those who are killed.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
Some princes, so as to hold securely the state, have disarmed their subjects, others have kept their subject towns distracted by factions...Our forefathers, and those who were reckoned wise, were accustomed to say that it was necessary to hold Pistoia [an Italian city] by factions and Pisa by fortress, and with this idea they fostered quarrels in some of their tributary towns so as to keep possession of them the more easily.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
My view is that it is desirable to be both loved and feared; but it is difficult to achieve both and, if one of them has to be lacking, it is much safer to be feared than loved.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
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Whoever takes it upon himself to establish a commonwealth and prescribe laws must presuppose all men naturally bad, and that they will yield to their innate evil passions as often as they can do so with safety.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
He who has not first laid his foundations may be able with great ability to lay them afterwards, but they will be laid with trouble to the architect and danger to the building.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
In war, discipline can do more than fury.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
Well used are those cruelties (if it is permitted to speak well of evil) that are carried out in a single stroke, done out of necessity to protect oneself, and are not continued but are instead converted into the greatest possible benefits for the subjects. Badly used are those cruelties which. although being few at the outset, grow with the passing time instead of disappearing. Those who follow the first method can remedy their condition with God and with men; the others cannot possibly survive.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
When every province of the world so teems with inhabitants that they can neither subsist where they are nor remove themselves elsewhere.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
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One never finds anything perfectly pure and ... exempt from danger.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
Besides what has been said, people are fickle by nature; and it is a simple to convince them of something but difficult to hold them in that conviction; and, therefore, affairs should be managed in such a way that when they no longer believe, they can be made to believe by force.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
A wise ruler should rely on what is under his own control, not on what is under the control of others.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
I consider it a mark of great prudence in a man to abstain from threats or any contemptuous expressions, for neither of these weaken the enemy, but threats make him more cautious, and the other excites his hatred, and a desire to revenge himself.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli