How perilous it is to free a people who prefer slavery.
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.
Men are of three different capacities: one understands intuitively; another understands so far as it is explained; and a third understands neither of himself nor by explanation. The first is excellent, the second, commendable, and the third, altogether useless.
The vulgar crowd always is taken by appearances, and the world consists chiefly of the vulgar.
Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
And what physicians say about disease is applicable here: that at the beginning a disease is easy to cure but difficult to diagnose; but as time passes, not having been recognized or treated at the outset, it becomes easy to diagnose but difficult to cure. The same thing occurs in affairs of state; for by recognizing from afar the diseases that are spreading in the state (which is a gift given only to the prudent ruler), they can be cured quickly; but when, not having been recognized, they are not recognized and are left to grow to the extent that everyone recognizes them, there is no longer any cure.
The state is not an organism capable of bringing either moral or material improvements to the populace...but merely a vehicle of power for the men and party in power.
You must know, then, that there are two methods of fighting, the one by law, the other by force: the first method is that of men, the second of beasts; but as the first method is often insufficient, one must have recourse to the second.
One should never fall in the belief that you can find someone to pick you up.
A wise ruler should rely on what is under his own control, not on what is under the control of others.
No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.
It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.
Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.
I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.
Everyone who wants to know what will happen ought to examine what has happened: everything in this world in any epoch has their replicas in antiquity.
the wise man should always follow the roads that have been trodden by the great, and imitate those who have most excelled, so that if he cannot reach their perfection, he may at least acquire something of its savour.
Impetuosity and audacity often achieve what ordinary means fail to achieve.
There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.
In war, discipline can do more than fury.
We must bear in mind, then, that there is nothing more difficult and dangerous, or more doubtful of success, than an attempt to introduce a new order of things in any state. For the innovator has for enemies all those who derived advantages from the old order of things, whilst those who expect to be benefited by the new institutions will be but lukewarm defenders.
He who has once begun to live by rapine always finds reasons for taking what is not his.
To be feared is much safer then to be loved.
For this is the tragedy of man circumstances change, but he does not.
Laa shay'a waqi'un moutlaq bale kouloun moumkine...We work in the Dark, to serve the Light.
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