Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes - Page 11

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In respect to foresight and firmness, the people are more prudent, more stable, and have better judgement than princes.

Niccolo Machiavelli

People, Judgement, Prudent

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One never finds anything perfectly pure and ... exempt from danger.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Danger, Pure

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It is much better to tempt fortune where it can favor you than to see your certain ruin by not tempting it.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Art, War, Favors

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I say that every prince must desire to be considered merciful and not cruel. He must, however, take care not to misuse this mercifulness.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Art, War, Desire

Niccolo Machiavelli (2017). “The Prince”, p.52, Knickerbocker Classics

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Therefore the best fortress is to be found in the love of the people, for although you may have fortresses they will not save you if you are hated by the people.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Love, Hate, People

Niccolo Machiavelli (2017). “The Prince”, p.69, Race Point Publishing

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Severities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offense; benefits ought to be handed ought drop by drop, so that they may be relished the more.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Giving, Political, Benefits

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A son could bear with great complacency, the death of his father, while the loss of his inheritance might drive him to despair.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Father, Loss, Son

"Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, p. 462-63, Del. Prin, Chapter XVII, 1922.

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When men receive favours from someone they expected to do them ill, they are under a greater obligation to their benefactor.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Art, War, Men

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Men as a whole judge more with their eyes than with their hands.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Eye, Men, Hands

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States that rise quickly, just as all the other things of nature that are born and grow rapidly, cannot have roots and ramifications; the first bad weather kills them

Niccolo Machiavelli

Weather, Roots, Firsts

Niccolo Machiavelli (1979). “The Portable Machiavelli”, p.68, Penguin

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And it will always happen that he who is not your friend will request your neutrality and he who is your friend will ask you to declare yourself by taking up arms. And irresolute princes, in order to avoid present dangers, follow the neutral road most of the time, and most of the time they are ruined.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Order, Neutrality, Arms

Niccolo Machiavelli (1979). “The Portable Machiavelli”, p.108, Penguin

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One can generally say this about men: that they are ungrateful, fickle, simulators and deceivers, avoiders of danger, greedy for gain; and while you work for their good they are completely yours, offering you their blood, their property, their lives, and their sons when danger is far away; but when it comes nearer to you, they turn away.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Philosophical, Son, Men

Niccolo Machiavelli (1979). “The Portable Machiavelli”, p.93, Penguin

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Every little advantage is of great moment when men have to come to blows.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Art, War, Blow

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When settling disputes between his subjects, he should ensure that his judgement is irrevocable; and he should be so regarded that no one ever dreams of trying to deceive or trick him.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Dream, Art, War

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One should never allow chaos to develop in order to avoid going to war, because one does not avoid a war but instead puts it off to his disadvantage

Niccolo Machiavelli

Memorial Day, War, Order

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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.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Strength, Wise, Hope

Niccolo Machiavelli (2017). “The Prince”, p.38, BookRix

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I am firmly convinced, therefore, that to set up a republic which is to last a long time, the way to set about it is to constitute it as Sparta and Venice were constituted; to place it in a strong position, and so to fortify it that no one will dream of taking it by a sudden assault; and, on the other hand, not to make it so large as to appear formidable to its neighbors. It should in this way be able to enjoy its form of government for a long time. For war is made on a commonwealth for two reasons: to subjugate it, and for fear of being subjugated by it.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Dream, Art, Strong

"Discourses on Livy" by Niccolò Machiavelli, book 1, ch. 3, as translated by LJ Walker and B Crick, 1517.

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How laudable it is for a prince to keep good faith and live with integrity, and not with astuteness, every one knows. Still the experience of our times shows those princes to have done great things who have had little regard for good faith, and have been able by astuteness to confuse men's brains, and who have ultimately overcome those who have made loyalty their foundation.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Loyalty, Art, Integrity

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

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One man should not be afraid of improving his posessions, lest they be taken away from him, or another deterred by high taxes from starting a new business. Rather, the Prince should be ready to reward men who want to do these things and those who endeavour in any way to increase the prosperity of their city or their state.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Taken, Men, Cities

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Men are more apt to be mistaken in their generalizations than in their particular observations.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Men, Justice, Observation

"World Politics: Trend and Transformation, 2013 - 2014 Update Edition". Book by Charles Kegley, p. 494, January 3, 2013.

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It is a true observation of ancient writers, that as men are apt to be cast down by adversity, so they, are easily satiated with prosperity, and that joy and grief produce the same effects. For whenever men are not obliged by necessity to fight they fight from ambition, which is so powerful a passion in the human breast that however high we reach we are never satisfied.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Powerful, Grief, Ambition

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Men are less hesitant about harming someone who makes himself loved than one who makes himself feared because love is held together by a chain of obligation which, since men are wretched creatures, is broken on every occasion in which their own interests are concerned; but fear is sustained by dread of punishment which will never abandon you.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Love Is, Men, Broken

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Well used are those cruelties (if it is permitted to speak well of evil) that are carried out in a single stroke, done out of necessity to protect oneself, and are not continued but are instead converted into the greatest possible benefits for the subjects. Badly used are those cruelties which. although being few at the outset, grow with the passing time instead of disappearing. Those who follow the first method can remedy their condition with God and with men; the others cannot possibly survive.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Men, Evil, Done

Niccolo Machiavelli (1979). “The Portable Machiavelli”, p.75, Penguin

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Besides what has been said, people are fickle by nature; and it is a simple to convince them of something but difficult to hold them in that conviction; and, therefore, affairs should be managed in such a way that when they no longer believe, they can be made to believe by force.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Believe, Simple, People

Niccolo Machiavelli (1979). “The Portable Machiavelli”, p.67, Penguin

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The prince must consider, as has been in part said before, how to avoid those things which will make him hated or contemptible; and as often as he shall have succeeded he will have fulfilled his part, and he need not fear any danger in other reproaches.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Art, War, Needs

Niccolo Machiavelli (2015). “The Prince”, p.80, Xist Publishing

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Born: May 3, 1469
Died: June 21, 1527
Occupation: Historian
Cite this Page: Citation

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