Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli

"Everyone knows how commendable it is for a ruler to keep his word and act sincerely without cunning. However, we have seen through experience that in our time, rulers who achieve great feats are not those who keep their word. They have deceived people with their cunning and ultimately triumphed over sincere rulers."
70 Quotes
"Everyone knows how commendable it is for a ruler to keep his word and act sincerely without cunning. However, we have seen through experience that in our time, rulers who achieve great feats are not those who keep their word. They have deceived people with their cunning and ultimately triumphed over sincere rulers."
Niccolò Machiavelli The Prince
"Any ruler who expects his name to be associated with generosity cannot do so without suffering harm. However, if he is wise, he should not be bothered by his name being associated with stinginess. This is because, over time, by acting frugally, he will realize that his income is sufficient for him, that he can defend himself against his enemies, and that he can implement his plans without causing hardship to his people. He will then realize that his name is more often associated with generosity among the vast majority to whom he has given generously, while he is seen as stingy by the minority to whom he has given nothing."
Niccolò Machiavelli The Prince
"Wise individuals should always tread the paths that great people have walked, and they should emulate those who are truly worth emulating."
Niccolò Machiavelli The Prince
"States accustomed to their own laws and freedoms have three ways to maintain control when they are conquered: The first is to eliminate them, the second is to go and settle there, the third is to subject them to taxation and establish a government composed of a small number of individuals who will ensure the friendship of the local people and allow them to live according to their own laws."
Niccolò Machiavelli The Prince
"Lui had made five mistakes: He had eliminated small powers, strengthened a powerful one in Italy, handed Italy over to a very strong foreigner, had not lived in Italy, and had not established a colony there."
Niccolò Machiavelli The Prince
"When someone enters a province with a different language, customs, and traditions, they must advocate for weaker powers than themselves, weaken the strong powers of that province, and, moreover, not allow a foreign ruler as powerful as themselves to enter those lands for any reason. That foreign ruler will come and settle there with the support of the people living in those lands who are unhappy due to fear or their immoderate ambitions."
Niccolò Machiavelli
"It is necessary for a prince wishing to hold his own to know how to do wrong, and to make use of it or not according to necessity."
Niccolò Machiavelli The Prince
"In conclusion, the arms of others either fall from your back, or they weigh you down, or they bind you fast."
Niccolò Machiavelli The Prince
"He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command"
Niccolò Machiavelli The Prince
"“He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command”"
Niccolò Machiavelli The Prince
"“A prudent man should always follow in the path trodden by great men and imitate those who are most excellent, so that if he does not attain to their greatness, at any rate he will get some tinge of it.”"
Niccolò Machiavelli The Prince
"“Because 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, the third is useless.”"
Niccolò Machiavelli The Prince
"“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”"
Niccolò Machiavelli The Prince
"Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society."
Niccolò Machiavelli
"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."
Niccolò 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 Machiavelli
"Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot."
Niccolò Machiavelli
"Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions."
Niccolò Machiavelli
"It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles."
Niccolò Machiavelli
"Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others."
Niccolò Machiavelli
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