Quote

We cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Cannot
Attribute
Without
Attributes
Achieved
Philosophical
Fortune
Virtue
Either
Literature
Umpires

More quotes by Niccolo Machiavelli

Image
One can generally say this about men: that they are ungrateful, fickle, simulators and deceivers, avoiders of danger, greedy for gain and while you work for their good they are completely yours, offering you their blood, their property, their lives, and their sons when danger is far away but when it comes nearer to you, they turn away.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
One should never fall in the belief that you can find someone to pick you up.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Never do your enemy a minor injury.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
And above all you ought to guard against leading an army to fight which is afraid or which is not confident of victory. For the greatest sign of an impending loss is when one does not believe one can win.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Wise men say, and not without reason, that whosoever wished to foresee the future might consult the past.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
The world has always been the same and there is always as much good fortune as bad in it.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
A government which does not trust its citizens to be armed is not itself to be trusted.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
A son can bear with equanimity the loss of his father, but the loss of his inheritance may drive him to despair.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
To keep your actions and your plans secret always has been a very good thing . .. Marcus Crassus said to one who asked him when he was going to move the army: 'Do you believe that you will be the only one not to hear the trumpet?
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
There should be many judges, for few will always do the will of few.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
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
Image
He who builds on the people, builds on the mud
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
I hope and hoping feeds my pain I weep and weeping feeds my failing heart I laugh but the laughter does not pass within I burn but the burning makes no mark outside.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
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
Image
God and nature have thrown all human fortunes into the midst of mankind and they are thus attainable rather by rapine than by industry, by wicked actions rather than by good. Hence it is that men feed upon each other, and those who cannot defend themselves must be worried.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
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
Image
A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.
Niccolo Machiavelli