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.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLIHe who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.
More Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
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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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Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.
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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 are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer to be tricked.
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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.
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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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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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Benefits ought to be handed ought drop by drop, so that they may be relished the more.
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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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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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No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
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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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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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Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.
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Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI






