Niccolò Machiavelli Quotes
20 quotes from Niccolò Machiavelli — Florentine diplomat and political philosopher..
“Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.”
“If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.”
“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”
“The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.”
“It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.”
“It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.”
“The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.”
“It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.”
“One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.”
“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.”
“Never was anything great achieved without danger.”
“Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.”
“I step inside the venerable courts of the ancients, where, received by them with affection, I feed on that food which only is mine and which I was born for.”
“The best fortress for the prince is to be loved by his people.”
“I love my country more than my own soul.”
“How one lives and how one ought to live are so far apart that he who spurns what is actually done for what ought to be done will achieve ruin rather than his own preservation.”
“She shows her power where virtù and wisdom do not prepare to resist her and directs her fury where she knows that no dykes or embankments are ready to hold her.”
“It is not the particular good but the common good that makes cities great. And without doubt this common good is observed nowhere but in a republic.”
“I feed on that food which only is mine and which I was born for, where I am not ashamed to speak with them and to ask them the reason for their actions; and they in their kindness answer me.”
“A people is more prudent, more stable, and of better judgment than a prince.”
