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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

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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
Fear
Preserves
Owing
Much
Punishment
Preserved
Every
Obligation
Feared
Never
Advantage
Safer
Men
Failing
Link
Love
Broken
Fails
Loved
Dread
Opportunity
Links
Baseness

More quotes by Niccolo Machiavelli

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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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Every little advantage is of great moment when men have to come to blows.
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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.
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You must know, then, that there are two methods of fighting, the one by law, the other by force: the first method is that of men, the second of beasts but as the first method is often insufficient, one must have recourse to the second.
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Men are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer to be tricked.
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How perilous it is to free a people who prefer slavery.
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The forces of adversaries are more diminished by the loss of those who flee than of those who are killed.
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There is nothing as likely to succeed as what the enemy believes you cannot attempt.
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A wise man will see to it that his acts always seem voluntary and not done by compulsion, however much he may be compelled by necessity.
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A son could bear with great complacency, the death of his father, while the loss of his inheritance might drive him to despair.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Thus it happens in matters of state for knowing afar off (which it is only given a prudent man to do) the evils that are brewing, they are easily cured. But when, for want of such knowledge, they are allowed to grow so that everyone can recognize them, there is no longer any remedy to be found.
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War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.
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There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.
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How we live is so different from how we ought to live that he who studies what ought to be done rather than what is done will learn the way to his downfall rather than to his preservation.
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War brings out thieves and peace hangs them.
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The peasant wants only to be left alone to prosper in peace.
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Thus it is well to seem merciful, faithful, humane, sincere, religious, and also to be so but you must have the mind so disposed that when it is needful to be otherwise you may be able to change to the opposite qualities.
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He who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation.
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Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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For without invention, no one was ever a great man in his own trade.
Niccolo Machiavelli