Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli Quotes
-
Men seldom rise from low condition to high rank without employing either force or fraud, unless that rank should be attained either by gift or inheritance.
-
I desire to go to Hell and not to Heaven. In the former I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings and princes, while in the latter are only beggars, monks and apostles...
-
Hence it comes that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.
-
Forgiveness proceeds from a generous soul.
-
He who would foresee what is to happen should look to what has happened: for all that is has its counterpart in time past.
-
A prince must not have any objective nor any thought, nor take up any art, other than the art of war and its ordering and discipline; because it is the only art that pertains to him who commands. And it is of such virtue that not only does it maintain those who were born princes, but many times makes men rise to that rank from private station.
-
Rome remained free for four hundred years and Sparta eight hundred, although their citizens were armed all that time; but many other states that have been disarmed have lost their liberties in less than forty years.
-
He who builds on the people, builds on the mud...
-
One man should not be afraid of improving his posessions, lest they be taken away from him, or another deterred by high taxes from starting a new business. Rather, the Prince should be ready to reward men who want to do these things and those who endeavour in any way to increase the prosperity of their city or their state.
-
For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are.
-
The Swiss are well armed and enjoy great freedom.
-
Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.
-
Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good.
-
The leader should know how to enter into evil when necessity commands.
-
Speaking generally, men are ungrateful, fickle, hypocritical, fearful odanger and covetous ogain.
-
Men never do good unless necessity drives them to it; but when they are free to choose and can do just as they please, confusion and disorder become rampant.
-
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.
-
They have not any difficulties on the way up because they fly, but they have many when they reach the summit.
-
One should never risk one's whole fortune unless supported by one's entire forces.
-
Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.
-
A prince... must learn from the fox and the lion... One must be a fox in order to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten off wolves. Those who act simply as lions are stupid. So it follows that a prudent ruler cannot, and must not, honour his word when it places him at a disadvantage and when the reasons for which he made his promise no longer exist.
-
Without doubt, ferocious and disordered men are much weaker than timid and ordered ones. For order chases fear from men and disorder lessens ferocity.
-
A sign of intelligence is an awareness of one's own ignorance.
-
A blast in the human breast is nothing to boast of.