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Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes - Page 4

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One can make this generalization about men: they are ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers, they shun danger and are greedy for profit; while you treat them well, they are yours. They would shed their blood for you,

One can make this generalization about men: they are ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers, they shun danger and are greedy for profit; while you treat them well, they are yours. They would shed their blood for you, risk their property, their lives, their children, so long, as I said above, as danger is remote; but when you are in danger they turn against you.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Children, Liars, Men
"The Prince". Book by Niccolo Machiavelli, www.cnn.com. 1532.

He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Fall, Ambition, Loss

Few men are brave by nature, but good discipline and experience make many so.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Art, War, Men
"The Art of War". Book by Niccolò Machiavelli, as translated by Neal Wood (1965), 1520.

I hold it to be a proof of great prudence for men to abstain from threats and insulting words toward anyone, for neither diminishes the strength of the enemy.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Men, Insulting, Enemy

I consider it a mark of great prudence in a man to abstain from threats or any contemptuous expressions, for neither of these weaken the enemy, but threats make him more cautious, and the other excites his hatred, and a desire to revenge himself.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Revenge, Men, Expression

He who desires or attempts to reform the government of a state and wishes to have it accepted, must at least retain the semblance of the old forms; so that it may seem to the people that there has been no change in the institutions, even though in fact they are entirely different from the old ones. For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Reality, Government, People

To be feared is much safer then to be loved.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Laa shay'a waqi'un moutlaq bale kouloun moumkine...We work in the Dark, to serve the Light.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Dark, Light, Shay

He who builds on the people, builds on the mud

Niccolo Machiavelli
People, Mud
Niccolo Machiavelli (2010). “The Prince”, p.37, FastPencil Inc

Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Change, Success, Philosophical

It is better to be adventurous than cautious, because fortune is a woman.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Adventurous, Fortune, Cautious
Niccolo Machiavelli (2010). “The Prince”, p.104, FastPencil Inc

Men never do good unless necessity drives them to it; but when they are free to choose and can do just as they please, confusion and disorder become rampant.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Art Of War, Men, Confusion
"Discourses on Livy" by Niccolò Machiavelli, book 1, ch. 3, as translated by LJ Walker and B Crick, 1517.

Whoever is the cause of another becoming powerful, is ruined himself.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Powerful, Causes, Becoming
Niccolo Machiavelli (2017). “The Prince”, p.12, Knickerbocker Classics

There is nothing so difficult or so dangerous as to undertake to change the order of things.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Order, Dangerous, Difficult

Minds are of three kinds: one is capable of thinking for itself; another is able to understand the thinking of others; and a third can neither think for itself nor understand the thinking of others. The first is of the highest excellence, the second is excellent, and the third is worthless.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Thinking, Mind, Excellence

Benefits should be conferred gradually; and in that way they will taste better.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Philosophy, Philosophical, Benefits

The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Grief, Men, Want

One must be a fox to recognize traps and a lion to frighten wolves

Niccolo Machiavelli
Lions, Foxes, Traps

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.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Submissive, Beats, Fortune

Appear as you may wish to be

Niccolo Machiavelli
Wish, May

When you disarm your subjects, however, you offend them by showing that either from cowardliness or lack of faith, you distrust them; and either conclusion will induce them to hate you.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Hate, Distrust, Conclusion

An armed republic submits less easily to the rule of one of its citizens than a republic armed by foreign forces. Rome and Sparta were for many centuries well armed and free. The Swiss are well armed and enjoy great freedom. Among other evils caused by being disarmed, it renders you contemptible. It is not reasonable to suppose that one who is armed will obey willingly one who is unarmed; or that any unarmed man will remain safe among armed servants.

Niccolo Machiavelli
Men, Rome, Evil

Though fraud in all other actions be odious, yet in matters of war it is laudable and glorious, and he who overcomes his enemies by stratagem is as much to be praised as he who overcomes them by force.

Niccolo Machiavelli
War, Enemy, Overcoming

For the mob is always impressed by appearances and by results, and the world is composed of the mob.

Niccolo Machiavelli
World, Appearance, Results

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

Niccolo Machiavelli
Men, Land, Safety

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