Never was anything great achieved without danger.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLIThe new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.
More Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
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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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Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
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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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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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Whoever conquers a free town and does not demolish it commits a great error and may expect to be ruined himself.
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Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.
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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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I’m not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.
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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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Severities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offense.
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Hence it comes about that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.
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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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One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.
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We cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either.
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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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The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.
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It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved.
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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 not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.
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Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.
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A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man.
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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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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.
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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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There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.
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The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI