Skip to content

Quote by Niccolò Machiavelli

“Men are ‘ungrateful, fickle, simulators and deceivers, avoiders of danger, and greedy for gain. While you work for their benefit, they are completely yours, offering you their blood, their property, their lives, and their sons, as I said above, when the need is far away. But when it draws nearer…” quote by Niccolò Machiavelli
Download Open image
““Men are ‘ungrateful, fickle, simulators and deceivers, avoiders of danger, and greedy for gain. While you work for their benefit, they are completely yours, offering you their blood, their property, their lives, and their sons, as I said above, when the need is far away. But when it draws nearer to you, they turn away’ (Ch. XVII). It is therefore better to be feared than to be loved, if one cannot be both, because ‘men are less hesitant about injuring someone who makes himself loved than one who makes himself feared’.””

Niccolò Machiavelli

4.1 out of 5 (4 ratings)

More by Niccolò Machiavelli

Explore all 590 Niccolò Machiavelli quotes