But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLIBenefits should be conferred gradually; and in that way they will taste better.
More Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
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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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The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.
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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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Severities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offense.
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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 return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man.
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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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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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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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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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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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Whoever conquers a free town and does not demolish it commits a great error and may expect to be ruined himself.
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Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.
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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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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.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI