Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes

“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.”

“War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.”

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

“For the mob is always impressed by appearances and by results, and the world is composed of the mob.”

“Men ought either to be well treated, or crushed.”

“And above all you ought to guard against leading an army to fight which is afraid or which is not confident of victory. For the greatest sign of an impending loss is when one does not believe one can win.”

“You must never believe that the enemy does not know how to conduct his own affairs. Indeed, if you want to be deceived less and want to bear less danger, the more the enemy is weak or the less the enemy is cautious, so much more must you esteem him.”

“Therefore, it is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares and a lion to terrify the wolves”

“Wisdom consists of knowing how to distinguish the nature of trouble, and in choosing the lesser evil.”

“And it will always happen that he who is not your friend will request your neutrality and he who is your friend will ask you to declare yourself by taking up arms. And irresolute princes, in order to avoid present dangers, follow the neutral road most of the time, and most of the time they are ruined.”

“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.”

“There are three kinds of brains. The one understands things unassisted, the other understands things when shown by others, the third understands neither alone nor with the explanations of others.”

“Speaking generally, men are ungrateful, fickle, hypocritical, fearful odanger and covetous ogain.”

“One must consider the final result”

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

“There is simply no comparison between a man who is armed and one who is not. It is simply unreasonable to expect that an armed man should obey one who is unarmed, or that an unarmed man should remain safe and secure when his servants are armed.”

“For among other evils caused by being disarmed, it renders you contemptible; which is one of those disgraceful things which a prince must guard against.”

“We must bear in mind, then, that there is nothing more difficult and dangerous, or more doubtful of success, than an attempt to introduce a new order of things in any state. For the innovator has for enemies all those who derived advantages from the old order of things, whilst those who expect to be benefited by the new institutions will be but lukewarm defenders.”

“Few men are brave by nature, but good discipline and experience make many so.”

“It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.”

“And when neither their property nor honour is touched, the majority of men live content, and he has only to contend with the ambition of a few, whom he can curb with ease in many ways.”

“A prince being thus obliged to know well how to act as a beast must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from snares, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves.”

“Politics have no relation to morals.”

“The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.”

“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”