Quote

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.

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
Done
Downfall
Different
Preservation
Way
Studies
Ought
Study
Rather
Learn
Live

More quotes by Niccolo Machiavelli

Image
Anyone who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it may expect to be destroyed by it for such a city may always justify rebellion in the name of liberty and its ancient institutions.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Many have dreamed up republics and principalities that have never in truth been known to exist the gulf between how one should live and how one does live is so wide that a man who neglects what is actually done for what should be done learns the way to self-destruction rather than self-preservation.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
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
Image
God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
He who builds on the people, builds on the mud
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Never lead your soldiers to battle if you have not first confirmed their spirit and known them to be without fear and ordered and never test them except when you see that they hope to win.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
There is nothing that Nature seems to have inclined us to as much as society.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Cruelties should be committed all at once.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Good order and discipline in any army are to be depended upon more than courage alone.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Men are so stupid and concerned with their present needs, they will always let themselves be deceived.
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
How perilous it is to free a people who prefer slavery.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
I hold it to be of great prudence for men to abstain from threats and insulting words towards any one, for neither the one nor the other in any way diminishes the strength of the enemy but the one makes him more cautious, and the other increases his hatred of you, and makes him more persevering in his efforts to injure you
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
as the physicians say it happens in hectic fever, that in the beginning of the malady it is easy to cure but difficult to detect, but in the course of time, not having been either detected or treated in the beginning, it becomes easy to detect but difficult to cure
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
For without invention, no one was ever a great man in his own trade.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved rather than feared, or feared rather than loved. It might perhaps be answered that we should wish to be both: but since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
One arises from a low to a high station more often by using fraud instead of force.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Men seldom rise from low condition to high rank without employing either force or fraud, unless that rank should be attained either by gift or inheritance.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
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.
Niccolo Machiavelli