Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLIBut when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes.
More Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
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It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
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Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.
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This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.
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War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.
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Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.
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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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There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.
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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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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 wise man does at once what the fool does finally.
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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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The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.
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Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
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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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He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.
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Politics have no relation to morals.
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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 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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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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A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.
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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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The one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not.
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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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Severities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offense.
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Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI