Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes

If the course of human affairs be considered, it will be seen that many things arise against which heaven does not allow us to guard.

All who contribute to the overthrow of religion, or to the ruin of kingdoms and commonwealths, all who are foes to letters and to the arts which confer honour and benefit on the human race (among whom I reckon the impious, the cruel, the ignorant, the indolent, the base and the worthless), are held in infamy and detestation.

And it will always happen that he who is not your friend will request your neutrality and he who is your friend will ask you to declare yourself by taking up arms. And irresolute princes, in order to avoid present dangers, follow the neutral road most of the time, and most of the time they are ruined.

The innovator has for enemies all who have done well under the old, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.

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

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

Gold will not always get you good soldiers, but good soldiers can get you gold.

States that rise quickly, just as all the other things of nature that are born and grow rapidly, cannot have roots and ramifications; the first bad weather kills them

A multitude is strong while it holds together, but so soon as each of those who compose it begins ro think of his own private danger, it becomes weak and contemptible.

When evening comes, I return home and go into my study. On the threshold I strip off my muddy, sweaty clothes of everyday, and put on the robes of court and palace, and in this graver dress I enter the antique courts of the ancients and am welcomed by them, and there I taste the food that alone is mine, and for which I was born. And there I make bold to speak to them and ask the motives of their actions, and they, in their humanity, reply to me. And for the space of four hours I forget the world, remember no vexation, fear poverty no more, tremble no more at death; I pass indeed into their world.

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

A wise prince then...should never be idle in times of peace but should industriously lay up stores of which to avail himself in times of adversity so that when fortune abandons him he may be prepared to resist her blows.

Men are able to assist fortune but not to thwart her. They can weave her designs, but they cannot destroy them.

It should be borne in mind that there is nothing more difficult to arrange, more doubtful of success, and more dangerous to carry through than initiating changes. The innovator makes enemies of all those who prospered under the old order, and only lukewarm support is forthcoming from those who would prosper under the new. Their support is lukewarm ... partly because men are generally incredulous, never really trusting new things unless they have tested them by experience.

I desire to go to Hell and not to Heaven. In the former I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings and princes, while in the latter are only beggars, monks and apostles

He who has once begun to live by rapine always finds reasons for taking what is not his.

One of the great secrets of the day is to know how to take possession of popular prejudices and passions, in such a way as to introduce a confusion of principles which makes impossible all understanding between those who speak the same language and have the same interests.

A battle that you win cancels any other bad action of yours. In the same way, by losing one, all the good things worked by you before become vain.

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.

For government consists in nothing else but so controlling subjects that they shall neither be able to, nor have cause to do [it] harm.

The wish to acquire more is admittedly a very natural and common thing; and when men succeed in this they are always praised rather than condemned. But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes.

....those who become princes through their skill acquire the pricipality with difficulty, buy they hold onto it with ease.

Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel. Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are.

There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.

As the observance of divine institutions is the cause of the greatness of republics, so the disregard of them produces their ruin; for where the fear of God is wanting, there the country will come to ruin, unless it be sustained the fear of the prince, which temporarily supply the want of religion.

I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.

War brings out thieves and peace hangs them.

It is a common failing of man not to take account of tempests during fair weather.

It is much safer for the prince to be feared than loved, but he ought to avoid making himself hated.

For, in truth, there is no sure way of holding other than by destroying

Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.

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.

I say that every prince must desire to be considered merciful and not cruel. He must, however, take care not to misuse this mercifulness.

Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.

They have not any difficulties on the way up because they fly, but they have many when they reach the summit.

When neither their property nor their honor is touched, the majority of men live content.

For one change always leaves a dovetail into which another will fit.

The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.

Speaking generally, men are ungrateful, fickle, hypocritical, fearful odanger and covetous ogain.

The leader should know how to enter into evil when necessity commands.

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

Thus it is well to seem merciful, faithful, humane, sincere, religious, and also to be so; but you must have the mind so disposed that when it is needful to be otherwise you may be able to change to the opposite qualities.

How perilous it is to free a people who prefer slavery.

Hence it comes that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.

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 off wolves. Those who act simply as lions are stupid. So it follows that a prudent ruler cannot, and must not, honour his word when it places him at a disadvantage and when the reasons for which he made his promise no longer exist.

A son could bear with great complacency, the death of his father, while the loss of his inheritance might drive him to despair.

A wise prince will seek means by which his subjects will always and in every possible condition of things have need of his government, and then they will always be faithful to him.

...people are by nature fickle, and it is easy to persuade them of something, but difficult to keep them persuaded.