Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli Quotes
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War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.
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He who makes war his profession cannot be otherwise than vicious. War makes thieves, and peace brings them to the gallows.
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Present wars impoverish the lords that win as much as those that lose.
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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.
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Power is the pivot on which everything hinges. He who has the power is always right; the weaker is always wrong.
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It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.
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...the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it.
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Occasionally words must serve to veil the facts. But let this happen in such a way that no one become aware of it; or, if it should be noticed, excuses must be at hand to be produced immediately.
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Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.
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Hence it comes that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.
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He who would foresee what is to happen should look to what has happened: for all that is has its counterpart in time past.
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...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.
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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.
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A prince must be prudent enough to know how to escape the bad reputation of those vices that would lose the state for him, and must protect himself from those that will not lose it for him, if this is possible; but if he cannot, he need not concern himself unduly if he ignores these less serious vices.
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Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.
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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.
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Laa shay'a waqi'un moutlaq bale kouloun moumkine...We work in the Dark, to serve the Light.
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The wish to acquire more is admittedly a very natural and common thing; and when men succeed in this they are always praised rather than condemned. But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes.
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One can generally say this about men: that they are ungrateful, fickle, simulators and deceivers, avoiders of danger, greedy for gain; and while you work for their good they are completely yours, offering you their blood, their property, their lives, and their sons when danger is far away; but when it comes nearer to you, they turn away.
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For among other evils caused by being disarmed, it renders you contemptible; which is one of those disgraceful things which a prince must guard against.
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Among other causes of misfortune which your not being armed brings upon you, it makes you despised.
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The Swiss are well armed and enjoy great freedom.
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Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration.
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The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.