It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLIA return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man.
More Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
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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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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.
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It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved.
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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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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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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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Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.
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This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.
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Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.
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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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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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So that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.
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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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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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God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI