Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLINo enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
More Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
-
-
War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI -
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.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI -
One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI -
No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI -
Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI -
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.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI -
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 -
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 MACHIAVELLI -
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 -
But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI -
If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI -
Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI -
The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI -
There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI -
The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI






