"Men sooner forget the death of their..." - Quote by Niccolo Machiavelli
Men sooner forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony
More by Niccolo Machiavelli
“If you only notice human proceedings, you may observe that all who attain great power and riches, make use of either force or fraud; and what they have acquired either by deceit or violence, in order to conceal the disgraceful methods of attainment, they endeavor to sanctify with the false title of honest gains.”
“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.”
“A wise ruler should rely on what is under his own control, not on what is under the control of others.”
More on Property
“Property should be in a general sense common, but as a general rule private... In well-ordered states, although every man has his own property, some things he will place at the disposal of his friends, while of others he shares the use of them.”
“No man ought to own more property than needed for his livelihood; the rest, by right, belonged to the state.”
“Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.”
More on Human Nature
“...we rarely confide in those who are better than we. Rather, we are more inclined to flee their society. Most often, on the other hand, we confess to those who are like us and who share our weaknesses. Hence we don't want to improve ourselves and be bettered, for we should first have to be judged in default. We merely wish to be pitied and encouraged in the course we have chosen. In short, we should like, at the same time, to cease being guilty and yet not to make the effort of cleansing ourselves.”
“Character is determined more by the lack of certain experiences than by those one has had.”
“Those characters wherein fear predominates over hope may apprehend too much from...instances of irregularity. They may conclude too hastily that nature has formed man insusceptible of any other government than that of force, a conclusion not founded in truth nor experience.”