A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLIIt is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
More Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
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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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Benefits ought to be handed ought drop by drop, so that they may be relished the more.
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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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It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
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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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Tardiness often robs us opportunity, and the dispatch of our forces.
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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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Before all else, be armed.
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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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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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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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He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.
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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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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.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI