The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLIA wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.
More Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
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The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love.
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Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
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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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But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes.
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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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The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.
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Before all else, be armed.
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Benefits should be conferred gradually; and in that way they will taste better.
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I’m not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.
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Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.
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It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.
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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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A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.
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There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.
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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.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI






