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A blast in the human breast is nothing to boast of.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
For government consists in nothing else but so controlling subjects that they shall neither be able to, nor have cause to do [it] harm.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
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All the armed prophets conquered; all the unarmed ones perished.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
So far as he is able, a prince should stick to the path of good but, if the necessity arises, he should know how to follow evil.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
He who builds on the people, builds on the mud...
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
He who has once begun to live by rapine always finds reasons for taking what is not his.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
He who would foresee what is to happen should look to what has happened: for all that is has its counterpart in time past.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
Therefore, a prudent ruler ought not to keep faith when by so doing it would be against his interest, and when the reasons which made him bind himself no longer exist. If men were all good, this precept would not be a good one; but as they are bad, and would not observe their faith with you, so you are not bound to keep faith with them.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
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The wish to acquire is in truth very natural and common, and men always do so when they can.but when they cannot do so, yet wish to do so by any means, then there is folly and blame.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
Because there are three classes of intellects: one which comprehends by itself; another which appreciates what others comprehend; and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others; the first is the most excellent, the second is good, the third is useless.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
Thus it is well to seem merciful, faithful, humane, sincere, religious, and also to be so; but you must have the mind so disposed that when it is needful to be otherwise you may be able to change to the opposite qualities.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
Impetuosity and audacity often achieve what ordinary means fail to achieve.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
It may be observed, that provinces amid the vicissitudes to which they are subject, pass from order into confusion, and afterward recur to a state of order again; for the nature of mundane affairs not allowing them to continue in an even course, when they have arrived at their greatest perfection, they soon begin to decline.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
It is often found that modesty and humility not only do no good, but are positively hurtful, when they are shown to the arrogant who have taken up a prejudice against you, either from envy or from any other cause.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
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Men are always averse to enterprises in which they foresee difficulties.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
An armed republic submits less easily to the rule of one of its citizens than a republic armed by foreign forces. Rome and Sparta were for many centuries well armed and free. The Swiss are well armed and enjoy great freedom. Among other evils caused by being disarmed, it renders you contemptible. It is not reasonable to suppose that one who is armed will obey willingly one who is unarmed; or that any unarmed man will remain safe among armed servants.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
Men are always wicked at bottom unless they are made good by some compulsion.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
If you only notice human proceedings, you may observe that all who attain great power and riches, make use of either force or fraud; and what they have acquired either by deceit or violence, in order to conceal the disgraceful methods of attainment, they endeavor to sanctify with the false title of honest gains.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
...as the physicians say it happens in hectic fever, that in the beginning of the malady it is easy to cure but difficult to detect, but in the course of time, not having been either detected or treated in the beginning, it becomes easy to detect but difficult to cure.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
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If the present be compared with the remote past, it is easily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
God creates men, but they choose each other.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
The state is not an organism capable of bringing either moral or material improvements to the populace...but merely a vehicle of power for the men and party in power.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
One of the great secrets of the day is to know how to take possession of popular prejudices and passions, in such a way as to introduce a confusion of principles which makes impossible all understanding between those who speak the same language and have the same interests.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli