Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli
The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.
Niccolo Machiavelli
God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us.
Niccolo Machiavelli
War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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
No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Whoever conquers a free town and does not demolish it commits a great error and may expect to be ruined himself.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.
Niccolo Machiavelli
The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.
Niccolo Machiavelli
A son can bear with equanimity the loss of his father, but the loss of his inheritance may drive him to despair.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.
Niccolo Machiavelli
The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow.
Niccolo Machiavelli