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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.
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
Way
Studies
Ought
Study
Rather
Learn
Live
Done
Downfall
Different
Preservation
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Impetuosity and audacity often achieve what ordinary means fail to achieve.
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A prince ought to have two fears, one from within, on account of his subjects, the other from without, on account of external powers.
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Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good. Hence a prince who wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good, and use that knowledge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires.
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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.
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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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So long as the great majority of men are not deprived of either property or honor, they are satisfied.
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Benefits should be conferred gradually and in that way they will taste better.
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The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms.
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So far as he is able, a prince should stick to the path of good but, if the necessity arises, he should know how to follow evil.
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To ensure victory the troops must have confidence in themselves as well as in their commanders.
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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.
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Never was anything great achieved without danger.
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Human beings remain constant in their methods of conduct.
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One must consider the final result
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Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised.
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Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel. Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are.
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For he who innovates will have for his enemies all those who are well off under the existing order of things, and only lukewarm supporters in those who might be better off under the new.
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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.
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It is better to be adventurous than cautious, because fortune is a woman.
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