Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli Quotes
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The ends justifies the means.
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Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.
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Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.
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A wise man ought always to follow the paths beaten by great men, and to imitate those who have been supreme, so that if his ability does not equal theirs, at least it will savor of it. Let him act like the clever archers who, designing to hit the mark which yet appears too far distant, and knowing the limits to which the strength of their bow attains, take aim much higher than the mark, not to reach by their strength or arrow to so great a height, but to be able with the aid of so high an aim to hit the mark they wish to reach.
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The greatest remedy that is used against a plan of the enemy is to do voluntarily what he plans that you do by force.
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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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Only those means of security are good, are certain, are lasting, that depend on yourself and your own vigor.
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Men are driven by two principal impulses, either by love or by fear.
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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.
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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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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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Because just as good morals, if they are to be maintained, have need of the laws, so the laws, if they are to be observed, have need of good morals.
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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.
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And when neither their property nor honour is touched, the majority of men live content, and he has only to contend with the ambition of a few, whom he can curb with ease in many ways.
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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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The end of the republic is to enervate and to weaken all other bodies so as to increase its own body.
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For as laws are necessary that good manners may be preserved, so there is need of good manner that laws may be maintained. [It., Perche, cosi come i buoni costumi, per mantenersi, hanno bisogno delli leggi; cosi le leggi per ossevarsi, hanno bisogno de' buoni costumi.]
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Men generally decide upon a middle course, which is most hazardous, for they know neither how to be entirely good nor entirely bad.
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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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He who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation.
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A blast in the human breast is nothing to boast of.
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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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When men receive favours from someone they expected to do them ill, they are under a greater obligation to their benefactor.
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The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms.