Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLIWe cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either.
More Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
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Whoever conquers a free town and does not demolish it commits a great error and may expect to be ruined himself.
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Hence it comes about that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.
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Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.
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No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
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Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries – for heavy ones they cannot.
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Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.
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So that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.
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War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.
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The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.
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It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
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Benefits should be conferred gradually; and in that way they will taste better.
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One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.
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If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
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A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise.
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The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI