Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes - Famous Quotes by Niccolo Machiavelli
Born: 1469-05-03
Died: 1527-06-21
Niccolo Machiavelli Biography
...it is a base thing to look to others for your defense instead of depending upon yourself. That defense alone is effectual, sure, and durable which depends upon yourself and your own valor.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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...people are by nature fickle, and it is easy to persuade them of something, but difficult to keep them persuaded.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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A prince should therefore have no other aim or thought, nor take up any other thing for his study but war and it organization and discipline, for that is the only art that is necessary to one who commands.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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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.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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Before all else, be armed.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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God creates men, but they choose each other.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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Hatred may be engendered by good deeds as well as bad ones.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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He who has not first laid his foundations may be able with great ability to lay them afterwards, but they will be laid with trouble to the architect and danger to the building.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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Is necessary to take such measures that, when they believe no longer, it may be possible to make them believe by force.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
More quotations on: [ Love ] [ Fear ] ***
It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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It is the nature of men to be bound by the benefits they confer as much as by those they receive.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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Men are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer to be tricked.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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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.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
More quotations on: [ Business ] ***
Nothing feeds upon itself as liberality does.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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One must be a fox in order to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten off wolves.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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There are three classes of intellects one which comprehends by itself another which appreciates what others comprehend and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others the first is the most excellent, the second is good, and the third is useless.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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There is no other way of guarding oneself against flattery than by letting men understand that they will not offend you by speaking the truth but when everyone can tell you the truth, you lose their respect.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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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 to things.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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To be feared is much safer then to be loved.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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War connot be avoided; it can only be postponed to the others advantage.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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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.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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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.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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When neither their property nor their honor is touched, the marjority of men live content.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasion for it.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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