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Niccolo Machiavelli Inspirational Quotes (216)

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Because there are three classes of intellects: one which comprehends by itself another which appreciates what others comprehend and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others the first is the most excellent, the second is good, the third is useless.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Cruelties should be committed all at once.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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So in all human affairs one notices, if one examines them closely, that it is impossible to remove one inconvenience without another emerging.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Men are always averse to enterprises in which they foresee difficulties.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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It makes him hated above all things, as I have said, to be rapacious, and to be a violator of the property and women of his subjects, from both of which he must abstain.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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In order not to annul our free will, I judge it true that Fortune may be mistress of one half our actions but then even she leaves the other half, or almost, under our control.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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There are three kinds of brains. The one understands things unassisted, the other understands things when shown by others, the third understands neither alone nor with the explanations of others.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Republics have a longer life and enjoy better fortune than principalities, because they can profit by their greater internal diversity. They are the better able to meet emergencies.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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And when he is obliged to take the life of any one, to do so when there is a proper justification and manifest reason for it but above all he must abstain from taking the property of others, for men forget more easily the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Human beings remain constant in their methods of conduct.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Tardiness often robs us opportunity, and the dispatch of our forces.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Princes should delegate to others the enactment of unpopular measures and keep in their own hands the means of winning favours.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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A prince must not have any other object nor any other thought… but war, its institutions, and its discipline because that is the only art befitting one who commands.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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For government consists in nothing else but so controlling subjects that they shall neither be able to, nor have cause to do [it] harm.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Men walk almost always in the paths trodden by others, proceeding in their actions by imitation.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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....for friendships that are acquired by a price and not by greatness and nobility of character are purchased but are not owned, and at the proper moment they cannot be spent.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Fear is secured by a dread of punishment.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Besides what has been said, people are fickle by nature and it is a simple to convince them of something but difficult to hold them in that conviction and, therefore, affairs should be managed in such a way that when they no longer believe, they can be made to believe by force.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Still, a prince should make himself feared in such a way that if he does not gain love, he at any rate avoids hatred for fear and the absence of hatred may well go together, and will be always attained by one who abstains from interfering with the property of his citizens and subjects or with their women.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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For whoever conquers a free Town, and does not demolish it, commits a great Error, and may expect to be ruin 'd himself.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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