Politics have no relation to morals.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLIThere 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.
More Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
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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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Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate.
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It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
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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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Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.
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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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It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
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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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I’m not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.
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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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So that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.
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Benefits should be conferred gradually; and in that way they will taste better.
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God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us.
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A son can bear with equanimity the loss of his father, but the loss of his inheritance may drive him to despair.
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He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.
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Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.
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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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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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Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
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The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.
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We cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either.
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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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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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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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