Niccolò Machiavelli - The Prince

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The best fortress which a prince can possess is the affection of his people.

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

Niccolò Machiavelli
It is the nature of men to feel as much obligated for benefits they confer as for those they receive.

Niccolò Machiavelli
A prince who is not wise himself will never take good advice.

Niccolò Machiavelli
There is no other way for securing yourself against flatteries except that men understand that they do not offend you by telling you the truth; but when everybody can tell you the truth, you fail to get respect.

Niccolò Machiavelli
Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.

Niccolò Machiavelli
When neither their property nor their honor is touched, the majority of men live content.

Niccolò Machiavelli
As to the actions of all men, and especially those of princes, against whom charges cannot be brought in court, everybody looks at their result.

Niccolò Machiavelli
And the prince who has relied solely on their words, without making other preparations, is ruined, for the friendship which is gained by purchase and not through grandeur and nobility of spirit is merited but is not secured, and at times is not to be had.

Niccolò Machiavelli
The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.

Niccolò Machiavelli
If someone puts up the argument that King Louis gave the Romagna to Pope Alexander, and the kingdom of Naples to Spain, in order to avoid a war, I would answer as I did before: that you should never let things get out of hand in order to avoid war. You don't avoid such a war, you merely postpone it, to your own disadvantage.

Niccolò Machiavelli
He [the prince] holds to what is right when he can but knows how to do wrong when he must.

Niccolò Machiavelli
A wise prince will seek means by which his subjects will always and in every possible condition of things have need of his government, and then they will always be faithful to him.

Niccolò Machiavelli
He who becomes a Prince through the favour of the people should always keep on good terms with them; which it is easy for him to do, since all they ask is not to be oppressed.

Niccolò Machiavelli
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 traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.

Niccolò Machiavelli
So long as the great majority of men are not deprived of either property or honour, they are satisfied.

Niccolò Machiavelli
Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.

Niccolò Machiavelli
And therefore a prince who does not understand the art of war, over and above the other misfortunes already mentioned, cannot be respected by his soldiers, nor can he rely on them. He ought never, therefore, to have out of his thoughts this subject of war, and in peace he should addict himself more to its exercise than in war; this he can do in two ways, the one by action, the other by study.

Niccolò Machiavelli
A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise.

Niccolò Machiavelli
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.

Niccolò Machiavelli
How laudable it is for a prince to keep good faith and live with integrity, and not with astuteness, every one knows. Still the experience of our times shows those princes to have done great things who have had little regard for good faith, and have been able by astuteness to confuse men's brains, and who have ultimately overcome those who have made loyalty their foundation.

Niccolò Machiavelli
And truly it is a very natural and ordinary thing to desire to acquire, and always, when men do it who can, they will be praised or not blamed; but when they cannot, and wish to do it anyway, here lies the error and the blame.

Niccolò Machiavelli
Many have imagined republics and principalities which have never been seen or known to exist in reality; for how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live, that he who abandons what is done for what ought to be done, will rather bring about his own ruin than his preservation.

Niccolò Machiavelli
A man who wishes to act entirely up to his professions of virtue soon meets with what destroys him among so much that is evil.

Niccolò Machiavelli
There is nothing more important than appearing to be religious.

Niccolò Machiavelli
So far as he is able, a prince should stick to the path of good but, if the necessity arises, he should know how to follow evil.

Niccolò Machiavelli
It is much safer to be feared than loved because... love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.

Niccolò Machiavelli
States that rise quickly, just as all the other things of nature that are born and grow rapidly, cannot have roots and ramifications; the first bad weather kills them.

Niccolò Machiavelli
But in Republics there is a stronger vitality, a fiercer hatred, a keener thirst for revenge. The memory of their former freedom will not let them rest; so that the safest course is either to destroy them, or to go and live in them.

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

Niccolò Machiavelli