Niccolo Machiavelli quotes

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.

Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.

Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.

The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.

Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.

War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.

Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.

The wish to acquire more is admittedly a very natural and common thing; and when men succeed in this they are always praised rather than condemned. But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes.

It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.

Whoever conquers a free town and does not demolish it commits a great error and may expect to be ruined himself.

A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.

War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.

There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.

Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.

One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.

War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.

Never was anything great achieved without danger.

The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.

War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.

No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.

Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.

Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.

To understand the nature of the people one must be a prince, and to understand the nature of the prince, one must be of the people.

There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.

Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.

God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us.

A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.

Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.

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.

War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.

It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.

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.

War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.

There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.

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.

Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.

The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.