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Niccolo Machiavelli

a statesman of Florence who advocated a strong central government (1469-1527)

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Famous quotes by Niccolo Machiavelli:Sort:PopularA - Z

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.
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.
War connot be avoided; it can only be postponed to the others advantage.
Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied.
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.
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.
God creates men, but they choose each other.
He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss.
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.
If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved.
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.
No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.
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.
There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.
There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantages of others.
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.
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.
When neither their property nor their honor is touched, the marjority of men live content.
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.

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