Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
Top 100 wise famous quotes and sayings by Niccolo Machiavelli
Niccolo Machiavelli Famous Quotes & Sayings
Discover top inspirational quotes from Niccolo Machiavelli on Wise Famous Quotes.
The end of the republic is to enervate and to weaken all other bodies so as to increase its own body.
Anyone who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good.
We have not seen great things done in our time except by those who have been considered mean; the rest have failed.
In respect to foresight and firmness, the people are more prudent, more stable, and have better judgement than princes.
These opportunities, then, gave these men the chance they needed, and their great abilities made them recognize it.
When they remain in garrison, soldiers are maintained with fear and punishment; when they are then led to war, with hope and reward.
The sinews of war are not gold, but good soldiers; for gold alone will not procure good soldiers, but good soldiers will always procure gold.
The princes who have done great things are the ones who have taken little account of their promises.
Good individuals cannot exist without good education, and good education cannot exist without good laws,
For the mob is always impressed by appearances and by results, and the world is composed of the mob.
If the course of human affairs be considered, it will be seen that many things arise against which heaven does not allow us to guard.
The first way to lose a state is to neglect the art of war; the first way to gain a state is to be skilled in the art of war.
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.
Princes should delegate to others the enactment of unpopular measures and keep in their own hands the means of winning favours.
Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration.
In conclusion, the arms of others either fall from your back, or they weigh you down, or they bind you fast.
Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not to suffer.
For, although one may be very strong in armed forces, yet in entering a province one has always need of the goodwill of the natives.
The people, as Cicero says, may be ignorant, but they can recognize the truth and will readily yield when some trustworthy man explains it to them.
Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.
Nothing is of greater importance in time of war than in knowing how to make the best use of a fair opportunity when it is offered.
Those who become princes through their skill acquire the pricipality with difficulty, buy they hold onto it with ease.
People are by nature fickle, and it is easy to persuade them of something, but difficult to keep them persuaded.
Without an opportunity, their abilities would have been wasted, and without their abilities, the opportunity would have arisen in vain.
For on Cardinal Rohan saying to me that the Italians did not understand war, I replied that the French did not understand politics.
When men receive favours from someone they expected to do them ill, they are under a greater obligation to their benefactor ...
In our own days we have seen no princes accomplish great results save those who have been accounted miserly.
Prudence consists in knowing how to distinguish the character of troubles, and for choice to take the lesser evil.
So long as the great majority of men are not deprived of either property or honor, they are satisfied.
Moreover, no one feels grateful to anyone for those benefits of freedom that all share in common, at least so long as they enjoy them.
He who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation.
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.
Necessity is what impels men to take action, and once necessity is gone, only rot and decay are left
The incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it.
Nothing is so unhealthy or unstable as the reputation for power that is not based on one's own power.
For government consists in nothing else but so controlling subjects that they shall neither be able to, nor have cause to do [it] harm.
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.
All the States and Governments by which men are or ever have been ruled, have been and are either Republics or Princedoms.
The reformer has enemies in all who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order.
Wisdom consists of knowing how to distinguish the nature of trouble, and in choosing the lesser evil.
Only those means of security are good, are certain, are lasting, that depend on yourself and your own vigor.
There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.