A son can bear with equanimity the loss of his father, but the loss of his inheritance may drive him to despair.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLIThe promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.
More Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
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It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
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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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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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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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A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise.
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We cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either.
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I’m not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.
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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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Severities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offense.
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Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.
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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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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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Hence it comes about that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.
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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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Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.
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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.
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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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It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.
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Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
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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 promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.
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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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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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It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
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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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There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI