Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.

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. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.

The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.

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, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.

God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us.

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.

There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.

A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise.

The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.

No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.

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.

We cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either.

Whoever conquers a free town and does not demolish it commits a great error and may expect to be ruined himself.

I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.

War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.

A son can bear with equanimity the loss of his father, but the loss of his inheritance may drive him to despair.

Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.

The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.

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

Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.

Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.

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.

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

The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.

One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.

The wish to acquire more is admittedly a very natural and common thing; and when men succeed in this they are always praised rather than condemned. But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes.

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.