"He who makes war his profession cannot..." - Quote by Niccolo Machiavelli
He who makes war his profession cannot be otherwise than vicious. War makes thieves, and peace brings them to the gallows.
More by Niccolo Machiavelli
“For the mob is always impressed by appearances and by results, and the world is composed of the mob.”
“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.”
“Occasionally words must serve to veil the facts. But let this happen in such a way that no one become aware of it; or, if it should be noticed, excuses must be at hand to be produced immediately.”
More on Morality
More on Consequences
“In their zeal for particular kinds of decisions to be made, those with the vision of the anointed seldom consider the nature of the: process: by which decisions are made. Often what they propose amounts to third-party decision making by people who pay no cost for being wrong-surely one of the least promising ways of reaching decisions satisfactory to those who must live with the consequences.”
“Quite often good things have hurtful consequences. There are instances of men who have been ruined by their money or killed by their courage.”
“If we never have headaches through rebuking our children, we shall have plenty of heartaches when they grow up.”