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The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Niccolo Machiavelli
Age: 58 †
Born: 1469
Born: May 3
Died: 1527
Died: June 22
Diplomat
Historian
Military Theorist
Philosopher
Playwright
Poet
Political Theorist
Politician
Translator
Writer
Florence
Tuscany
Nicolo Machiavelli
Niccolo Machiavelli
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
Nicolò Machiavelli
N. Machiavelli
Niccolo di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
Machiavelli
Broken
Present
Literature
Word
Given
Past
Necessity
Promise
More quotes by Niccolo Machiavelli
A government which does not trust its citizens to be armed is not itself to be trusted.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
How perilous it is to free a people who prefer slavery.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration.
Niccolo 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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
So long as the great majority of men are not deprived of either property or honor, they are satisfied.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Men in general judge more by the sense of sight than by the sense of touch, because everyone can see but few can test by feeling. Everyone sees what you seem to be, few know what you really are and those few do not dare take a stand against the general opinion.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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
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
For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
It is the duty of a man of honor to teach others the good which he has not been able to do himself because of the malignity of the times, that this good finally can be done by another more loved in heaven.
Niccolo Machiavelli
One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.
Niccolo Machiavelli
One must consider the final result
Niccolo Machiavelli
the wise man should always follow the roads that have been trodden by the great, and imitate those who have most excelled, so that if he cannot reach their perfection, he may at least acquire something of its savour.
Niccolo Machiavelli
The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.
Niccolo Machiavelli
There is nothing that Nature seems to have inclined us to as much as society.
Niccolo Machiavelli
There is no avoiding war it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Human beings remain constant in their methods of conduct.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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
