Quotes About Authority

Niall Ferguson

Power, let us not forget, is not just about being able to buy whatever you want; that is mere wealth. Power is about being able to get whatever you want at below the market price.

John [Ivan] the Terrible

Niall Ferguson

Niall Ferguson

Only general officers were entitled to know our true rank. To all others our standard reply to the inevitable question, "What is your rank?" was simply a firm, "My rank is confidential, but at this moment I am not outranked."39

The British Empire was the nearest thing there has ever been to a world government. Yet its mode of operation was a triumph of minimalism.

Edmund Burke habló en nombre de muchos cuando dijo: «El uso de la fuerza exclusivamente […] puede dominar por un momento, pero no evita la necesidad de volver a dominar otra vez, y una nación no es gobernada si ha de ser perpetuamente conquistada».

Men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.

A prince must not have any other object nor any other thought… but war, its institutions, and its discipline; because that is the only art befitting one who commands.

My view is that it is desirable to be both loved and feared; but it is difficult to achieve both and, if one of them has to be lacking, it is much safer to be feared than loved.

For it must be noted, that men must either be caressed or else annihilated; they will revenge themselves for small injuries, but cannot do so for great ones; the injury therefore that we do to a man must be such that we need not fear his vengeance.

For, in truth, there is no sure way of holding other than by destroying

Being feared and not hated go well together, and the prince can always do this if he does not touch the property or the women of his citizens and subjects.

Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.

From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved rather than feared, or feared rather than loved. It might perhaps be answered that we should wish to be both: but since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.

It's better to be feared than loved if you cannot be both.

Men must either be caressed or else destroyed.

In general you must either pamper people or destroy them; harm them just a little and they'll hit back; harm them seriously and they won't be able to. So if you're going to do people harm, make sure you needn't worry about their reaction.

Returning to the question of being feared or loved, I conclude that since men love at their own will and fear at the will of the prince, a wise prince must build a foundation on what is his own, and not on what belongs to others.

For that reason, let a prince have the credit of conquering and holding his state, the means will always be considered honest, and he will be praised by everybody because the vulgar are always taken by what a thing seems to be and by what comes of it; and in the world there are only the vulgar, for the few find a place there only when the many have no ground to rest on.

Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.

And let it here be noted that men are either to be kindly treated, or utterly crushed, since they can revenge lighter injuries, but not graver. Wherefore the injury we do to a man should be of a sort to leave no fear of reprisals.

Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised.