War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLIIt 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.
More Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
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Tardiness often robs us opportunity, and the dispatch of our forces.
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It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.
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We cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either.
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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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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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Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.
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This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.
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Before all else, be armed.
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Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries – for heavy ones they cannot.
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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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Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.
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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.
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It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
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Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.
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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.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI