Niccolò Machiavelli Quotes
Niccolò Machiavelli Quotes. Below is a collection of famous Niccolò Machiavelli quotes. Here you can find the most popular and greatest quotes by Niccolò Machiavelli. Share these quotations with your friends and family.
The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.
By Niccolo Machiavelli
Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.
By Niccolo Machiavelli
Put not your trust in princes, bureaucrats or generals, they will plead expedience while spilling your blood from a safe distance.
By Niccolò Machiavelli
One must be a fox in order to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten off wolves.
By Niccolo Machiavelli
Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot
By Niccolo Machiavelli
Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.
By Niccolo Machiavelli
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.
By Niccolo Machiavelli
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.
By Niccolo Machiavelli
Men nearly always follow the tracks made by others and proceed in their affairs by imitation, even though they cannot entirely keep to the tracks of others or emulate the prowess of their models. So a prudent man should always follow in the footsteps of great men and imitate those who have been outstanding. If his own prowess fails to compare with theirs, at least it has an air of greatness about it. He should behave like those archers who, if they are skilful, when the target seems too distant, know the capabilities of their bow and aim a good deal higher than their objective, not in order to shoot so high but so that by aiming high they can reach the target.
By Niccolo Machiavelli
Is necessary to take such measures that, when they believe no longer, it may be possible to make them believe by force.
By Niccolo Machiavelli
If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared
By Niccolo Machiavelli
If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
By Niccolo Machiavelli
I shall always esteem it not much to live in a city where the laws do less than men, because that fatherland is desirable where possessions and friends can be securely enjoyed, not where they can be easily taken from you, and friends for few of thems
By Niccolo Machiavelli
He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss.
By Niccolo Machiavelli
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.
By Niccolo Machiavelli
For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearance, as though they were realities and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are
By Niccolo Machiavelli
Because just as good morals, if they are to be maintained, have need of the laws, so the laws, if they are to be observed, have need of good morals.
By Niccolò Machiavelli
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.
By Niccolo Machiavelli
A son can bear with equanimity the loss of his father, but the loss of his inheritance may drive him to despair.
By Niccolo Machiavelli
A son could bear complacently the death of his father while the loss of his inheritance might drive him to despair
By Niccolo Machiavelli
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.
By Niccolo Machiavelli
...it is a base thing to look to others for your defense instead of depending upon yourself. That defense alone is effectual, sure, and durable which depends upon yourself and your own valor.
By Niccolo Machiavelli
...people are by nature fickle, and it is easy to persuade them of something, but difficult to keep them persuaded.
By Niccolo Machiavelli