Top 394 Quotes & Sayings by Niccolo Machiavelli - Page 3

So in all human affairs one notices, if one examines them closely, that it is impossible to remove one inconvenience without another emerging.

Knowing how to fight made men more bold, because no one fears doing what it seems to him he has learned to do. Therefore, the ancients wanted their citizens to be trained in every warlike action.

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.

A wise man will see to it that his acts always seem voluntary and not done by compulsion, however much he may be compelled by necessity.

There is nothing so difficult or so dangerous as to undertake to change the order of things.

Few men are brave by nature, but good discipline and experience make many so.

I hold it to be a proof of great prudence for men to abstain from threats and insulting words toward anyone, for neither diminishes the strength of the enemy.

He who makes war his profession cannot be otherwise than vicious. War makes thieves, and peace brings them to the gallows.

Nature creates few men brave, industry and training makes many.

Hence it comes that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.

By the delusions of seeming good the people are often misled to desire their own ruin; and they are frequently influenced by great hopes and brave promises.

One must be a fox to recognize traps and a lion to frighten wolves

It is a foolish prince who entrusts the safety of his lands to hired men.

To be feared is much safer then to be loved.

He who has once begun to live by rapine always finds reasons for taking what is not his.

Though fraud in all other actions be odious, yet in matters of war it is laudable and glorious, and he who overcomes his enemies by stratagem is as much to be praised as he who overcomes them by force.

A wise prince then...should never be idle in times of peace but should industriously lay up stores of which to avail himself in times of adversity so that when fortune abandons him he may be prepared to resist her blows.

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.

Results are often obtained by impetuosity and daring which could never have been obtained by ordinary methods.

Half of these aren't even Machiavelli. Some are Plato, Thucydides etc....doesnt anyone check these?

The best fortress which a prince can possess is the affection of his people.

When you disarm your subjects, however, you offend them by showing that either from cowardliness or lack of faith, you distrust them; and either conclusion will induce them to hate you.

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.

It is often found that modesty and humility not only do no good, but are positively hurtful, when they are shown to the arrogant who have taken up a prejudice against you, either from envy or from any other cause.

When neither their property nor their honor is touched, the majority of men live content.

It is a common failing of man not to take account of tempests during fair weather.

The peasant wants only to be left alone to prosper in peace.

How we live is so different from how we ought to live that he who studies what ought to be done rather than what is done will learn the way to his downfall rather than to his preservation.

Whoever is the cause of another becoming powerful, is ruined himself.

It is necessary that the prince should know how to color his nature well, and how to be a hypocrite and dissembler. For men are so simple, and yield so much to immediate necessity, that the deceiver will never lack dupes.

Those who either from imprudence or want of sagacity avoid doing so, are always overwhelmed with servitude and poverty; for faithful servants are always servants, and honest men are always poor; nor do any ever escape from servitude but the bold and faithless, or from poverty, but the rapacious and fraudulent.

A prudent man... must behave like those archers who, if they are skillful, when the target seems too distant, know the capabilities of their bow and aim a good deal higher than their objective, not in order to shoot so high but so that by aiming high they can reach the target.

Wisdom consists in being able to distinguish among dangers and make a choice of the least harmful.

One must consider the final result

All the armed prophets conquered; all the unarmed ones perished.

Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised.

One should never permit a disorder to persist in order to avoid a war, for wars cannot be avoided and can only be deferred to the advantage of others.

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.

Men sooner forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony

Good order makes men bold, and confusion, cowards.

For, in truth, there is no sure way of holding other than by destroying

He who desires or attempts to reform the government of a state and wishes to have it accepted, must at least retain the semblance of the old forms; so that it may seem to the people that there has been no change in the institutions, even though in fact they are entirely different from the old ones. For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities.

He who builds on the people, builds on the mud

It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new. This coolness arises partly from fear of the opponents, who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of men, who do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them.

There is simply no comparison between a man who is armed and one who is not. It is simply unreasonable to expect that an armed man should obey one who is unarmed, or that an unarmed man should remain safe and secure when his servants are armed.

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.

The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms.

A battle that you win cancels any other bad action of yours. In the same way, by losing one, all the good things worked by you before become vain.

Delusion gives you more happiness than truth gives to me. For injuries ought to be done all at one time, so that, being tasted less, they offend less; benefits ought to be given little by little, so that the flavour of them may last longer.

Anyone who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it may expect to be destroyed by it; for such a city may always justify rebellion in the name of liberty and its ancient institutions.

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.

Nothing feeds upon itself as liberality does.

Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are, and those few dare not oppose themselves to the opinion of the many, who have the majesty of the state to defend them.

Fear is secured by a dread of punishment.

Princes should delegate to others the enactment of unpopular measures and keep in their own hands the means of winning favours.

For the mob is always impressed by appearances and by results, and the world is composed of the mob.

Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel. Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are.

You have to be a prince to understand the people, and you have to belong to the people to understand the princes.

No one should therefore fear that he cannot accomplish what others have accomplished, for, men are born, live, and die in quite the same way they always have.

War is a profession by which a man cannot live honorably; an employment by which the soldier, if he would reap any profit, is obliged to be false, rapacious, and cruel.