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  • Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes   389
  • He who desires or attempts to reform the government of a state and wishes to have it accepted, must at least retain the semblance of the old forms; so that it may seem to the people that there has been no change in the institutions, even though in fact they are entirely different from the old ones. For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities.
  • 5 years ago



    Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Reality Quotes , Government Quotes
  • The reason is that nature has so created men that they are able to desire everything but are not able to attain everything: so that the desire being always greater than the acquisition, there results discontent with the possession and little satisfaction to themselves from it. From this arises the changes in their fortunes; for as men desire, some to have more, some in fear of losing their acquisition, there ensues enmity and war, from which results the ruin of that province and the elevation of another.
  • 5 years ago



    Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Art Quotes , War Quotes
  • He who has annexed them, if he wishes to hold them, has only to bear in mind two considerations: the one, that the family of their former lord is extinguished; the other, that neither their laws nor their taxes are altered, so that in a very short time they will become entirely one body with the old principality.
  • 5 years ago



    Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Law Quotes , Two Quotes
  • For that reason, let a prince have the credit of conquering and holding his state, the means will always be considered honest, and he will be praised by everybody because the vulgar are always taken by what a thing seems to be and by what comes of it; and in the world there are only the vulgar, for the few find a place there only when the many have no ground to rest on.
  • 5 years ago



    Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Taken Quotes , Mean Quotes
  • 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.
  • 5 years ago



    Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Art Quotes , War Quotes