Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli Quotes
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In conclusion, the arms of others either fall from your back, or they weigh you down, or they bind you fast.
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You do not know the unfathomable cowardice of humanity...servile in the face of force, pitiless in the face of weakness, implacable before blunders, indulgent before crimes...and patient to the point of martyrdom before all the violences of bold despotism.
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Men are so stupid and concerned with their present needs, they will always let themselves be deceived.
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Never lead your soldiers to battle if you have not first confirmed their spirit and known them to be without fear and ordered; and never test them except when you see that they hope to win.
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Tardiness often robs us opportunity, and the dispatch of our forces.
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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...
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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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....nothing is so unhealthy or unstable as the reputation for power that is not based on one's own power.
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Men are always wicked at bottom unless they are made good by some compulsion.
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For that reason, let a prince have the credit of conquering and holding his state, the means will always be considered honest, and he will be praised by everybody because the vulgar are always taken by what a thing seems to be and by what comes of it; and in the world there are only the vulgar, for the few find a place there only when the many have no ground to rest on.
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When fortune wishes to bring mighty events to a successful conclusion, she selects some man of spirit and ability who knows how to seize the opportunity she offers.
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Then also pretexts for seizing property are never wanting, and one who begins to live by rapine will always find some reason for taking the goods of others, whereas causes for taking life are rarer and more quickly destroyed.
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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.
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Results are often obtained by impetuosity and daring which could never have been obtained by ordinary methods.
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...people are by nature fickle, and it is easy to persuade them of something, but difficult to keep them persuaded.
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The ends justifies the means.
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Men are more ready to offend one who desires to be beloved than one who wishes to be feared.
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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.
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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 prince who relies upon their words, without having otherwise provided for his security, is ruined; for friendships that are won by awards, and not by greatness and nobility of soul, although deserved, yet are not real, and cannot be depended upon in time of adversity.
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Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever shall be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same results.
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One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.
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We have not seen great things done in our time except by those who have been considered mean; the rest have failed.
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A prince who is not himself wise cannot be wisely advised. . . . Good advice depends on the shrewdness of the prince who seeks it, and not the shrewdness of the prince on good advice.