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Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes - Page 11

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Men are more ready to offend one who desires to be beloved than one who wishes to be feared.

Men are more ready to offend one who desires to be beloved than one who wishes to be feared.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Life, Men, Wish

Never lead your soldiers to battle if you have not first confirmed their spirit and known them to be without fear and ordered; and never test them except when you see that they hope to win.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Art, War, Winning

One should never allow chaos to develop in order to avoid going to war, because one does not avoid a war but instead puts it off to his disadvantage

Niccolo Machiavelli
Memorial Day, War, Order

And here one must not that hatred is acquired just as much by means of good actions as by bad ones; and so, as I said above, if a prince wishes to maintain the state, he is often obliged not to be good; because whenever that group which you believe you need to support you is corrupted, whether it be the common people, the soldiers, or the nobles, it is to your advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them; and then good actions are your enemy.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Believe, Mean, Order

I hope and hoping feeds my pain I weep and weeping feeds my failing heart I laugh but the laughter does not pass within I burn but the burning makes no mark outside.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Laughter, Pain, Reading

One never finds anything perfectly pure and ... exempt from danger.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Danger, Pure

Men ought either to be well treated, or crushed.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Men, Crushed, Wells
Niccolo Machiavelli (2010). “The Prince”, p.7, FastPencil Inc

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Inspirational, Change, Leadership
Niccolo Machiavelli (2010). “The Prince”, p.21, FastPencil Inc

In order not to annul our free will, I judge it true that Fortune may be mistress of one half our actions but then even she leaves the other half, or almost, under our control.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Order, Judging, Mistress

....for friendships that are acquired by a price and not by greatness and nobility of character are purchased but are not owned, and at the proper moment they cannot be spent.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Character, Greatness, Politics
Niccolo Machiavelli (1979). “The Portable Machiavelli”, p.93, Penguin

He who would foresee what is to happen should look to what has happened: for all that is has its counterpart in time past.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Past, Looks, Should

He who has annexed them, if he wishes to hold them, has only to bear in mind two considerations: the one, that the family of their former lord is extinguished; the other, that neither their laws nor their taxes are altered, so that in a very short time they will become entirely one body with the old principality.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Law, Two, Mind
"The Prince". EasyRead Large Bold Edition,

Men walk almost always in the paths trodden by others, proceeding in their actions by imitation.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Men, Path, Action
Niccolo Machiavelli (2017). “The Prince”, p.18, Race Point Publishing

It is much better to tempt fortune where it can favor you than to see your certain ruin by not tempting it.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Art, War, Favors

For titles do not reflect honor on men, but rather men on their titles.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Men, Honor, Titles
"Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, p. 372-75, Dei Discorsi, III. 38, 1922.

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
God, Philosophical, Art Of War
Niccolo Machiavelli (2010). “The Prince”, p.106, FastPencil Inc

Whoever takes it upon himself to establish a commonwealth and prescribe laws must presuppose all men naturally bad, and that they will yield to their innate evil passions as often as they can do so with safety.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Passion, Men, Yield

One can generally say this about men: that they are ungrateful, fickle, simulators and deceivers, avoiders of danger, greedy for gain; and while you work for their good they are completely yours, offering you their blood, their property, their lives, and their sons when danger is far away; but when it comes nearer to you, they turn away.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Philosophical, Son, Men
Niccolo Machiavelli (1979). “The Portable Machiavelli”, p.93, Penguin

It is a true observation of ancient writers, that as men are apt to be cast down by adversity, so they, are easily satiated with prosperity, and that joy and grief produce the same effects. For whenever men are not obliged by necessity to fight they fight from ambition, which is so powerful a passion in the human breast that however high we reach we are never satisfied.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Powerful, Grief, Ambition

A wise man ought always to follow the paths beaten by great men, and to imitate those who have been supreme, so that if his ability does not equal theirs, at least it will savor of it. Let him act like the clever archers who, designing to hit the mark which yet appears too far distant, and knowing the limits to which the strength of their bow attains, take aim much higher than the mark, not to reach by their strength or arrow to so great a height, but to be able with the aid of so high an aim to hit the mark they wish to reach.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Strength, Wise, Hope
Niccolo Machiavelli (2017). “The Prince”, p.38, BookRix

Men as a whole judge more with their eyes than with their hands.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Eye, Men, Hands

It is better to be bold than too circumspect, because fortune is of a sex which likes not a tardy wooer and repulses all who are not ardent.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Sex, Likes, Fortune

All the States and Governments by which men are or ever have been ruled, have been and are either Republics or Princedoms.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Men, Republic, States
Niccolo Machiavelli (2015). “The Prince”, p.4, Booklassic

Never do your enemy a minor injury.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Enemy, Injury, Minors

Therefore, it is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares and a lion to terrify the wolves

Niccolo Machiavelli
Lions, Foxes, Snares
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI (2008). “The Prince (EasyRead Large Bold Edition)”, p.89, ReadHowYouWant.com

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