Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes, Love Is Quotes, Men Quotes

One can say this in general of men: they are ungrateful, disloyal, insincere and deceitful, timid of danger and avid of profit...Love is a bond of obligation that these miserable creatures break whenever it suits them to do so; but fear holds them fast by a dread of punishment that never passes.

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

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In the armies and among every ten men there is one of more life, of more heart, or at least of more authority, who with his courage, with words and by example keeps the others firm and disposed to fight.

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Power is the pivot on which everything hinges. He who has the power is always right; the weaker is always wrong.

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Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good.

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There is nothing as likely to succeed as what the enemy believes you cannot attempt.

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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.

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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.

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Then also pretexts for seizing property are never wanting, and one who begins to live by rapine will always find some reason for taking the goods of others, whereas causes for taking life are rarer and more quickly destroyed.

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A prince must be prudent enough to know how to escape the bad reputation of those vices that would lose the state for him, and must protect himself from those that will not lose it for him, if this is possible; but if he cannot, he need not concern himself unduly if he ignores these less serious vices.

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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Vices Quotes , Needs Quotes

....it cannot be called ingenuity to kill one's fellow citizens, to betray friends, to be without faith, without mercy, without religion; by these means one can aquire power but not glory.

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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Mean Quotes , Citizens Quotes

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.

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The sinews of war are not gold, but good soldiers.

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The prince who relies upon their words, without having otherwise provided for his security, is ruined; for friendships that are won by awards, and not by greatness and nobility of soul, although deserved, yet are not real, and cannot be depended upon in time of adversity.

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Men ought either to be well treated, or crushed.

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

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The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.

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You know better than I that in a Republic talent is always suspect. A man attains an elevated position only when his mediocrity prevents him from being a threat to others. And for this reason a democracy is never governed by the most competent, but rather by those whose insignificance will not jeopardize anyone else's self-esteem.

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The best fortress which a prince can possess is the affection of his people.

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I hold it to be of great prudence for men to abstain from threats and insulting words towards any one, for neither the one nor the other in any way diminishes the strength of the enemy; but the one makes him more cautious, and the other increases his hatred of you, and makes him more persevering in his efforts to injure you

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