Niccolo Machiavelli's quotes

Men are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer to be tricked.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Never was anything great achieved without danger.
Niccolo Machiavelli

No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.
Niccolo Machiavelli

One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.
Niccolo Machiavelli

One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Politics have no relation to morals.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Severities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offense; benefits ought to be handed ought drop by drop, so that they may be relished the more.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Tardiness often robs us opportunity, and the dispatch of our forces.
Niccolo Machiavelli

The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love.
Niccolo Machiavelli

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.
Niccolo Machiavelli

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

The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow.