Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLIOf mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.
More Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
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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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Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
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We cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either.
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Politics have no relation to morals.
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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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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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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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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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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 one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not.
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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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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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Before all else, be armed.
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No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI