Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries – for heavy ones they cannot.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLISince it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.
More Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
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We cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either.
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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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Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.
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Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.
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Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
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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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Politics have no relation to morals.
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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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A son can bear with equanimity the loss of his father, but the loss of his inheritance may drive him to despair.
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Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.
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Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.
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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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Severities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offense.
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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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The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI






