So that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLIWe cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either.
More Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
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The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.
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Benefits ought to be handed ought drop by drop, so that they may be relished the more.
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A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise.
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The wish to acquire more is admittedly a very natural and common thing; and when men succeed in this they are always praised rather than condemned.
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A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.
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One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.
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I’m not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.
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It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved.
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There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others.
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Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.
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It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.
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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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Tardiness often robs us opportunity, and the dispatch of our forces.
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For among other evils caused by being disarmed, it renders you contemptible; which is one of those disgraceful things which a prince must guard against.
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It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
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Never was anything great achieved without danger.
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Politics have no relation to morals.
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It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
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The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.
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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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His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.
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Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.
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It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.
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When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred.
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The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow.
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To understand the nature of the people one must be a prince, and to understand the nature of the prince, one must be of the people.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI