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Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.

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
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Poet
Political Theorist
Politician
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Florence
Tuscany
Nicolo Machiavelli
Niccolo Machiavelli
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
Nicolò Machiavelli
N. Machiavelli
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More quotes by Niccolo Machiavelli

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(A ruler) cannot and should not keep his word when to do so would go against his interests or when the reason he pledged it no longer holds.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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It has always been the opinion and judgment of wise men that nothing can be so uncertain as fame or power not founded on its own strength.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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For government consists in nothing else but so controlling subjects that they shall neither be able to, nor have cause to do [it] harm.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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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
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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
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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
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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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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If the course of human affairs be considered, it will be seen that many things arise against which heaven does not allow us to guard.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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It is better to be adventurous than cautious, because fortune is a woman.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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If the present be compared with the remote past, it is easily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Wisdom consists of knowing how to distinguish the nature of trouble, and in choosing the lesser evil.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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In order not to annul our free will, I judge it true that Fortune may be mistress of one half our actions but then even she leaves the other half, or almost, under our control.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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For as laws are necessary that good manners be preserved, so there is need of good manners that law may be maintained.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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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
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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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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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