Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes

• 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

  Benefits, Honey, Gains

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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

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

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Inspirational, Relationship, Marketing

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• An armed republic submits less easily to the rule of one of its citizens than a republic armed by foreign forces. Rome and Sparta were for many centuries well armed and free. The Swiss are well armed and enjoy great freedom. Among other evils caused by being disarmed, it renders you contemptible. It is not reasonable to suppose that one who is armed will obey willingly one who is unarmed; or that any unarmed man will remain safe among armed servants.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Men, Rome, Evil

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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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• It ought to be remembered that 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. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new. This coolness arises partly from fear of the opponents, who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of men, who do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Believe, Art Of War, Men

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• Results are often obtained by impetuosity and daring which could never have been obtained by ordinary methods.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Success, Ordinary, Results

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• Thus it is well to seem merciful, faithful, humane, sincere, religious, and also to be so; but you must have the mind so disposed that when it is needful to be otherwise you may be able to change to the opposite qualities.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Religious, Character, Opposites

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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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• 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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• Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not to suffer.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Mistake, Ambition, Sloth

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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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• 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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• It is just as difficult and dangerous to try to free a people that wants to remain servile as it is to enslave a people that wants to remain free.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  People, Political, Trying

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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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• 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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• There is nothing as likely to succeed as what the enemy believes you cannot attempt.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Art, War, Believe

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• A prince... must learn from the fox and the lion... One must be a fox in order to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten off wolves. Those who act simply as lions are stupid. So it follows that a prudent ruler cannot, and must not, honour his word when it places him at a disadvantage and when the reasons for which he made his promise no longer exist.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Art, Stupid, War

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• 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.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Peace, War, Men

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• In the armies, and among every ten men, there must be one of more life, of more heart, or at least of more authority, who with his spirit, with his words, and with his example keeps the others firm and disposed to fight.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Art, War, Fighting

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• For that reason, let a prince have the credit of conquering and holding his state, the means will always be considered honest, and he will be praised by everybody because the vulgar are always taken by what a thing seems to be and by what comes of it; and in the world there are only the vulgar, for the few find a place there only when the many have no ground to rest on.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Taken, Mean, Credit

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