Severities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offense.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLIWar 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.
More Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
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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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It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.
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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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Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.
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We cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either.
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One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.
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A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man.
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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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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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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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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 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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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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No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
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Tardiness often robs us opportunity, and the dispatch of our forces.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI