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.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLIGod is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us.
More Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
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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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Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.
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This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.
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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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Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.
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One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.
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It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
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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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One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.
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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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Benefits ought to be handed ought drop by drop, so that they may be relished the more.
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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 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 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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War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI