Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes, Wise Quotes, Italian Quotes

Some princes, so as to hold securely the state, have disarmed their subjects, others have kept their subject towns distracted by factions...Our forefathers, and those who were reckoned wise, were accustomed to say that it was necessary to hold Pistoia [an Italian city] by factions and Pisa by fortress, and with this idea they fostered quarrels in some of their tributary towns so as to keep possession of them the more easily.

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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Wise Quotes , Italian 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.

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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Taken Quotes , Mean Quotes

A battle that you win cancels any other bad action of yours. In the same way, by losing one, all the good things worked by you before become vain.

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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Art Quotes , War Quotes

In our own days we have seen no princes accomplish great results save those who have been accounted miserly.

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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Results Quotes , Accomplish Quotes

I desire to go to Hell and not to Heaven. In the former I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings and princes, while in the latter are only beggars, monks and apostles

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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Death Quotes , Kings Quotes

But in Republics there is a stronger vitality, a fiercer hatred, a keener thirst for revenge. The memory of their former freedom will not let them rest; so that the safest course is either to destroy them, or to go and live in them.

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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Memories Quotes , Revenge Quotes

Thus it is well to seem merciful, faithful, humane, sincere, religious, and also to be so; but you must have the mind so disposed that when it is needful to be otherwise you may be able to change to the opposite qualities.

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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Religious Quotes , Character Quotes

And if such malignity is hidden for a time, it proceeds from the unknown reason that would not be known because the experience of the contrary had not been seen, but time, which is said to be the father of every truth, will cause it to be discovered.

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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Art Quotes , Father Quotes

There are three kinds of minds: first those that attain insight and understanding of things by their own means, then those that recognize what is right when others explain it to them, and finally those that are capable of neither one nor the other.

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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Mean Quotes , Understanding Quotes

It is often found that modesty and humility not only do no good, but are positively hurtful, when they are shown to the arrogant who have taken up a prejudice against you, either from envy or from any other cause.

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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Taken Quotes , Humility Quotes

In conclusion, the arms of others either fall from your back, or they weigh you down, or they bind you fast.

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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Fall Quotes , Arms Quotes

One should never permit a disorder to persist in order to avoid a war, for wars cannot be avoided and can only be deferred to the advantage of others.

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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Peace Quotes , War Quotes

If the present be compared with the remote past, it is easily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were.

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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Passion Quotes , Past Quotes

Men are less hesitant about harming someone who makes himself loved than one who makes himself feared because love is held together by a chain of obligation which, since men are wretched creatures, is broken on every occasion in which their own interests are concerned; but fear is sustained by dread of punishment which will never abandon you.

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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Love Is Quotes , Men Quotes

That prince is highly esteemed who conveys this impression of himself, and he who is highly esteemed is not easily conspired against; for, provided it is well known that he is an excellent man and revered by his people, he can only be attacked with difficulty.

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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Art Quotes , War Quotes

A prudent man should always follow in the path trodden by great men and imitate those who are most excellent, so that if he does not attain to their greatness, at any rate he will get some tinge of it.

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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Greatness Quotes , Men Quotes

Results are often obtained by impetuosity and daring which could never have been obtained by ordinary methods.

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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Success Quotes , Ordinary Quotes

For as laws are necessary that good manners be preserved, so there is need of good manners that law may be maintained.

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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Law Quotes , Good Man Quotes

War is a profession by which a man cannot live honorably; an employment by which the soldier, if he would reap any profit, is obliged to be false, rapacious, and cruel.

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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Peace Quotes , War Quotes

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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Tags : Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes , Men Quotes , Way Quotes