Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Power is the pivot on which everything hinges. He who has the power is always right; the weaker is always wrong.
A son can bear with equanimity the loss of his father, but the loss of his inheritance may drive him to despair.
You have to be a prince to understand the people, and you have to belong to the people to understand the princes.
God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us.
The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.
...people are by nature fickle, and it is easy to persuade them of something, but difficult to keep them persuaded.
We have not seen great things done in our time except by those who have been considered mean; the rest have failed.
...the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it.
The greatest remedy that is used against a plan of the enemy is to do voluntarily what he plans that you do by force.
For as laws are necessary that good manners be preserved, so there is need of good manners that law may be maintained.
Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration.
In respect to foresight and firmness, the people are more prudent, more stable, and have better judgement than princes.
For whoever conquers a free Town, and does not demolish it, commits a great Error, and may expect to be ruin 'd himself.
Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.
....those who become princes through their skill acquire the pricipality with difficulty, buy they hold onto it with ease.
Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.
Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.
He who makes war his profession cannot be otherwise than vicious. War makes thieves, and peace brings them to the gallows.
All the States and Governments by which men are or ever have been ruled, have been and are either Republics or Princedoms.
He who would foresee what is to happen should look to what has happened: for all that is has its counterpart in time past.
Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.
When men receive favours from someone they expected to do them ill, they are under a greater obligation to their benefactor.
To know well the nature of the people one must be a prince, and to know well the nature of princes one must be of the people.
The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.
A son could bear with great complacency, the death of his father, while the loss of his inheritance might drive him to despair.
Princes should delegate to others the enactment of unpopular measures and keep in their own hands the means of winning favours.
So far as he is able, a prince should stick to the path of good but, if the necessity arises, he should know how to follow evil.
Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.
Nothing is of greater importance in time of war than in knowing how to make the best use of a fair opportunity when it is offered.
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.
Men generally decide upon a middle course, which is most hazardous, for they know neither how to be entirely good nor entirely bad.
He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss.
When they remain in garrison, soldiers are maintained with fear and punishment; when they are then led to war, with hope and reward.
A prince ought to have two fears, one from within, on account of his subjects, the other from without, on account of external powers.
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.
There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend 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.
A wise man will see to it that his acts always seem voluntary and not done by compulsion, however much he may be compelled by necessity.
The reformer has enemies in all who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order.
When every province of the world so teems with inhabitants that they can neither subsist where they are nor remove themselves elsewhere.
For as good habits of the people require good laws to support them, so laws, to be observed, need good habits on the part of the people.
I say that every prince must desire to be considered merciful and not cruel. He must, however, take care not to misuse this mercifulness.
It has always been the opinion and judgment of wise men that nothing can be so uncertain as fame or power not founded on its own strength.
The one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not.
Therefore it is unnecessary for a prince to have all the good qualities I have enumerated, but it is very necessary to appear to have them.
(A ruler) cannot and should not keep his word when to do so would go against his interests or when the reason he pledged it no longer holds.
It is better to be bold than too circumspect, because fortune is of a sex which likes not a tardy wooer and repulses all who are not ardent.
The sinews of war are not gold, but good soldiers; for gold alone will not procure good soldiers, but good soldiers will always procure gold.
So in all human affairs one notices, if one examines them closely, that it is impossible to remove one inconvenience without another emerging.
The nature of man is such that people consider themselves put under an obligation as much by the benefits they confer as by those they receive.