“Whoever conquers a free town and does not demolish it commits a great error and may expect to be ruined himself.”
Great
“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.”
MenAll Quotes by Niccolo Machiavelli
“Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.”
Great“The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow.”
Good“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“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“War is just when it is necessary arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.”
Hope“Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.”
Society“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“Politics have no relation to morals.”
Politics“A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.”
Faith“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”
Intelligence“No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.”
Business“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“Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.”
Good“Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.”
Nature“Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.”
Men“One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.”
Change“It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.”
Men“Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.”
Men“It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.”
Men