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From Quotes by Niccolo Machiavelli
- One man should not be afraid of improving his posessions, lest they be taken away from him, or another deterred by high taxes from starting…
- When men receive favours from someone they expected to do them ill, they are under a greater obligation to their benefactor...
- A prince... must learn from the fox and the lion... One must be a fox in order to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten…
- It may be observed, that provinces amid the vicissitudes to which they are subject, pass from order into confusion, and afterward recur to a state…
- No proceeding is better than that which you have concealed from the enemy until the time you have executed it. To know how to recognize…
- In the same manner, having been reduced by disorder, and sunk to their utmost state of depression, unable to descend lower, they, of necessity, reascend;…
- Those who either from imprudence or want of sagacity avoid doing so, are always overwhelmed with servitude and poverty; for faithful servants are always servants,…
- And if such malignity is hidden for a time, it proceeds from the unknown reason that would not be known because the experience of the…
- The reason is that nature has so created men that they are able to desire everything but are not able to attain everything: so that…
- The Romans never allowed a trouble spot to remain simply to avoid going to war over it, because they knew that wars don't just go…
- A prince ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline; for…
- Many have imagined republics and principalities which have never been seen or known to exist in reality; for how we live is so far removed…
- A prince, therefore, must not mind incurring the charge of cruelty for the purpose of keeping his subjects united and confident; for, with a very…
- Nevertheless, he must be cautious in believing and acting, and must not inspire fear of his own accord, and must proceed in a temperate manner…
- Still, a prince should make himself feared in such a way that if he does not gain love, he at any rate avoids hatred; for…
- And when he is obliged to take the life of any one, to do so when there is a proper justification and manifest reason for…
- A prince being thus obliged to know well how to act as a beast must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot…
- It makes him hated above all things, as I have said, to be rapacious, and to be a violator of the property and women of…
- It makes him contemptible to be considered fickle, frivolous, effeminate, mean-spirited, irresolute, from all of which a prince should guard himself as from a rock;…
- A prince ought to have two fears, one from within, on account of his subjects, the other from without, on account of external powers.
- From the latter he is defended by being well armed and having good allies, and if he is well armed he will have good friends,…
- Without doubt, ferocious and disordered men are much weaker than timid and ordered ones. For order chases fear from men and disorder lessens ferocity.
- And what physicians say about disease is applicable here: that at the beginning a disease is easy to cure but difficult to diagnose; but as…
- For a prince should have two fears: one, internal concerning his subjects; the other, external, concerning foreign powers. From the latter he can always defend…
- Decide which is the line of conduct that presents the fewest drawbacks and then follow it out as being the best one, because one never…
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- Total loyalty is possible only when fidelity is emptied of all concrete content, from which changes of mind might naturally arise. — Hannah Arendt
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- From heresy, frenzy and jealousy, good Lord deliver me. — Ludovico Ariosto
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- Men of sense often learn from their enemies. It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of… — Aristophanes
- At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst. — Aristotle