"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."
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Quote collection
Niccolo Machiavelli quotes (page 1 of 20)
389 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves."
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"Women are the most charitable creatures, and the most troublesome. He who shuns women passes up the trouble, but also the benefits. He who puts up with them gains the benefits, but also the trouble. As the saying goes, there's no honey without bees."
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"Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are."
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"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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"Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage."
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"A government which does not trust its citizens to be armed is not itself to be trusted."
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"Men are so stupid and concerned with their present needs, they will always let themselves be deceived."
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"It is just as difficult and dangerous to try to free a people that wants to remain servile as it is to enslave a people that wants to remain free."
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"It should be borne in mind that there is nothing more difficult to arrange, more doubtful of success, and more dangerous to carry through than initiating changes. The innovator makes enemies of all those who prospered under the old order, and only lukewarm support is forthcoming from those who would prosper under the new. Their support is lukewarm ... partly because men are generally incredulous, never really trusting new things unless they have tested them by experience."
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"Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good."
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"One of the great secrets of the day is to know how to take possession of popular prejudices and passions, in such a way as to introduce a confusion of principles which makes impossible all understanding between those who speak the same language and have the same interests."
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"A sign of intelligence is an awareness of one's own ignorance."
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"Power is the pivot on which everything hinges. He who has the power is always right; the weaker is always wrong."
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"You know better than I that in a Republic talent is always suspect. A man attains an elevated position only when his mediocrity prevents him from being a threat to others. And for this reason a democracy is never governed by the most competent, but rather by those whose insignificance will not jeopardize anyone else's self-esteem."
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"it is better to act and repent than not to act and regret."
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"Politics have no relation to morals."
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"The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it."
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"And what physicians say about disease is applicable here: that at the beginning a disease is easy to cure but difficult to diagnose; but as time passes, not having been recognized or treated at the outset, it becomes easy to diagnose but difficult to cure. The same thing occurs in affairs of state; for by recognizing from afar the diseases that are spreading in the state (which is a gift given only to the prudent ruler), they can be cured quickly; but when, not having been recognized, they are not recognized and are left to grow to the extent that everyone recognizes them, there is no longer any cure."
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"The wise man does at once what the fool does finally."
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