Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes

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  Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Wisdom, Eye, Reality

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• One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Liars, Lying, Philosophical

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

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Work, Philosophical, Men

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• Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Winning, Deception, Force

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• Women are the most charitable creatures, and the most troublesome. He who shuns women passes up the trouble, but also the benefits. He who puts up with them gains the benefits, but also the trouble. As the saying goes, there's no honey without bees.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Bees, Benefits, Honey

  Niccolo Machiavelli (2009). “The Essential Writings of Machiavelli”, p.456, Modern Library

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• Power is the pivot on which everything hinges. He who has the power is always right; the weaker is always wrong.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Always Wrong, Hinges

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• A government which does not trust its citizens to be armed is not itself to be trusted.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Government, Doe, Citizens

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• The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Lions, Foxes, Traps

  Niccolo Machiavelli (2017). “The Prince”, p.55, Knickerbocker Classics

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• Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Inspirational, Relationship, Marketing

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• How perilous it is to free a people who prefer slavery.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  People, Slavery

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• When evening comes, I return home and go into my study. On the threshold I strip off my muddy, sweaty, workday clothes, and put on the robes of court and palace, and in this graver dress I enter the antique courts of the ancients and am welcomed by them, and there I taste the food that alone is mine, and for which I was born. And there I make bold to speak to them and ask the motives of their actions, and they, in their humanity, reply to me. And for the space of four hours I forget the world, remember no vexation, fear poverty no more, tremble no more at death: I pass indeed into their world.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Home, Clothes, Space

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• A sign of intelligence is an awareness of one's own ignorance.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Ignorance, Intelligence, Awareness

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• You know better than I that in a Republic talent is always suspect. A man attains an elevated position only when his mediocrity prevents him from being a threat to others. And for this reason a democracy is never governed by the most competent, but rather by those whose insignificance will not jeopardize anyone else's self-esteem.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Self Esteem, Men, Democracy

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• Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Men, Numbers, Trying

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• Politics have no relation to morals.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Political, Nerd, Politics

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• For a long time I have not said what I believed, nor do I ever believe what I say, and if indeed sometimes I do happen to tell the truth, I hide it among so many lies that it is hard to find.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Lying, Believe, Long

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• One of the great secrets of the day is to know how to take possession of popular prejudices and passions, in such a way as to introduce a confusion of principles which makes impossible all understanding between those who speak the same language and have the same interests.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Passion, Confusion, Understanding

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• Rome remained free for four hundred years and Sparta eight hundred, although their citizens were armed all that time; but many other states that have been disarmed have lost their liberties in less than forty years.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Gun, Rome, Years

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• I desire to go to Hell and not to Heaven. In the former I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings and princes, while in the latter are only beggars, monks and apostles

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Death, Kings, Heaven

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• Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Humorous, Opportunity, Differences

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• For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Truth, Reality, Empathy

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• It should be borne in mind that there is nothing more difficult to arrange, more doubtful of success, and more dangerous to carry through than initiating changes. The innovator makes enemies of all those who prospered under the old order, and only lukewarm support is forthcoming from those who would prosper under the new. Their support is lukewarm ... partly because men are generally incredulous, never really trusting new things unless they have tested them by experience.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Change, Men, Order

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• The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Past, Keeping Promises, Broken

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• Men are so stupid and concerned with their present needs, they will always let themselves be deceived.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Stupid, Men, Needs

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• The greatest remedy that is used against a plan of the enemy is to do voluntarily what he plans that you do by force.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Art, War, Enemy

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