Benefits ought to be handed ought drop by drop, so that they may be relished the more.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLISo that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.
More Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
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The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.
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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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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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Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.
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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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The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.
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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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This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.
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Benefits should be conferred gradually; and in that way they will taste better.
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Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.
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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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We cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either.
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Hence it comes about that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.
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Tardiness often robs us opportunity, and the dispatch of our forces.
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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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God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us.
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He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.
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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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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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Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.
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It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.
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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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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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Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
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Before all else, be armed.
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Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI