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.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLIThe more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.
More Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
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One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.
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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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If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
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Severities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offense.
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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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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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It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI -
There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.
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War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.
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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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The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.
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Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.
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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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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.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI