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Men are so simple of mind, and so much dominated by their immediate needs, that a deceitful man will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
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.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
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There are three kinds of brains: One understands of itself, another can be taught to understand, and the third can neither understand to itself or be taught to understand.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
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.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
No proceeding is better than that which you have concealed from the enemy until the time you have executed it. To know how to recognize an opportunity in war, and take it, benefits you more than anything else. Nature creates few men brave, industry and training makes many. Discipline in war counts more than fury.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
In conclusion, the arms of others either fall from your back, or they weigh you down, or they bind you fast.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
Half of these aren't even Machiavelli. Some are Plato, Thucydides etc....doesnt anyone check these?
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
He who becomes a Prince through the favour of the people should always keep on good terms with them; which it is easy for him to do, since all they ask is not to be oppressed...
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
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Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
Decide which is the line of conduct that presents the fewest drawbacks and then follow it out as being the best one, because one never finds anything perfectly pure and unmixed, or exempt from danger.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
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.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
Present wars impoverish the lords that win as much as those that lose.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
Therefore it is unnecessary for a prince to have all the good qualities I have enumerated, but it is very necessary to appear to have them. And I shall dare to say this also, that to have them and always to observe them is injurious, and that to appear to have them is useful; to appear merciful, faithful, humane, religious, upright, and to be so, but with a mind so framed that should you require not to be so, you may be able and know how to change to the opposite.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
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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.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
A sign of intelligence is an awareness of one's own ignorance.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
The leader should know how to enter into evil when necessity commands.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
Thus it happens in matters of state; for knowing afar off (which it is only given a prudent man to do) the evils that are brewing, they are easily cured. But when, for want of such knowledge, they are allowed to grow so that everyone can recognize them, there is no longer any remedy to be found.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
How laudable it is for a prince to keep good faith and live with integrity, and not with astuteness, every one knows. Still the experience of our times shows those princes to have done great things who have had little regard for good faith, and have been able by astuteness to confuse men's brains, and who have ultimately overcome those who have made loyalty their foundation.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
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One can make this generalization about men: they are ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers, they shun danger and are greedy for profit; while you treat them well, they are yours. They would shed their blood for you, risk their property, their lives, their children, so long, as I said above, as danger is remote; but when you are in danger they turn against you.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
Men generally decide upon a middle course, which is most hazardous, for they know neither how to be entirely good nor entirely bad.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
In the armies and among every ten men there is one of more life, of more heart, or at least of more authority, who with his courage, with words and by example keeps the others firm and disposed to fight.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli -
The people resemble a wild beast, which, naturally fierce and accustomed to live in the woods, has been brought up, as it were, in a prison and in servitude, and having by accident got its liberty, not being accustomed to search for its food, and not knowing where to conceal itself, easily becomes the prey of the first who seeks to incarcerate it again.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli