Quotes from Niccolo Machiavelli

I hold strongly to this: that it is better to be impetuous than circumspect; because fortune is a woman and if she is to be submissive it is necessary to beat and coerce her.

For one change always leaves a dovetail into which another will fit.

Is it better to be loved or feared?

A prince is also esteemed when he is a true friend and a true enemy.

And truly it is a very natural and ordinary thing to desire to acquire, and always, when men do it who can, they will be praised or not blamed; but when they cannot, and wish to do it anyway, here lies the error and the blame.

He who causes another to become powerful ruins himself, for he brings such a power into being either by design or by force, and both of these elements are suspects to the one whom he has made powerful.

One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.

Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.

A prince is also esteemed when he shows himself a true friend or a true enemy, that is, when, without reservation, he takes his stand with one side or the other. This is always wiser than trying to be neutral, for if two powerful neighbors of yours fall out they are either of such sort that the victor may give you reason to fear him or they are not. In either case it will be better for you to take sides and wage an honest war.

One Must Be A Fox In Order To Recognize Traps, And A Lion To Frighten Off Wolves

instead of praying for some new holy man to save you, learn the way to Hell in order to steer clear of it yourself.

And although one should not reason about Moses, as he was a mere executor of things that had been ordered for him by God, nonetheless he should be admired if only for that grace which made him deserving of speaking with God.

PuÅ£ini v?d cum suntem într-adev?r, dar toÅ£i v?d ce ne prefacem c? suntem.

Florence which included diplomatic missions to various European courts.

at Florence which included diplomatic missions to various European courts. Imprisoned

Ognuno vede quello che tu pari, pochi sentono quello che tu se

There is in everything a latent evil peculiar to it.

How we live is so difference than how we ought to live that he who studies what ought to be done rather than what is done will learn the way to his downfall rather than to his preservation. The Prince.

You can't have good laws if you don't have good armed forces.

It makes him hated above all things, as I have said, to be rapacious, and to be a violator of the property and women of his subjects, from both of which he must abstain.

A man who is used to acting in one way never changes; he must come to ruin when the times, in changing, no longer are in harmony with his ways.

It has always been the opinion and judgment of wise men that nothing can be so uncertain as fame or power not founded on its own strength.

It is a foolish prince who entrusts the safety of his lands to hired men.

Speaking generally, men are ungrateful, fickle, hypocritical, fearful odanger and covetous ogain.