“To understand the nature of the people one must be a prince, and to understand the nature of the prince, one must be of the people.”
Nature
“Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.”
NatureAll Quotes by Niccolo Machiavelli
“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”
Intelligence“The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.”
Life“Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.”
Fear“Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.”
Nature“No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.”
Business“Men are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer to be tricked.”
Men“There is no avoiding war it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.”
War“Whoever conquers a free town and does not demolish it commits a great error and may expect to be ruined himself.”
Great“A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.”
Good“Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.”
Men“Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.”
Men“There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.”
Good“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.”
Success“One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.”
Change“War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.”
Peace“There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.”
Religion“Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.”
Men“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.”
Men“God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us.”
God