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Men never do good unless necessity drives them to it but when they are free to choose and can do just as they please, confusion and disorder become rampant.

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
Good
Disorder
Never
Necessity
Men
Confusion
Unless
Choose
Please
Free
Rampant
Become
Drives

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...it behooves us to adapt oneself to the times if one wants to enjoy continued good fortune.
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For one change always leaves a dovetail into which another will fit.
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Only those means of security are good, are certain, are lasting, that depend on yourself and your own vigor.
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The innovator has for enemies all who have done well under the old, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.
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Cruelties should be committed all at once.
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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.
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For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are.
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How perilous it is to free a people who prefer slavery.
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One should never fall in the belief that you can find someone to pick you up.
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A wise ruler should rely on what is under his own control, not on what is under the control of others.
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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.
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Is it better to be loved or feared?
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It is better to be bold than too circumspect, because fortune is of a sex which likes not a tardy wooer and repulses all who are not ardent.
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Impetuosity and audacity often achieve what ordinary means fail to achieve.
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It may be observed, that provinces amid the vicissitudes to which they are subject, pass from order into confusion, and afterward recur to a state of order again for the nature of mundane affairs not allowing them to continue in an even course, when they have arrived at their greatest perfection, they soon begin to decline.
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There is no avoiding war it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.
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With difficulty he is beaten who can estimate his own forces and those of his enemy.
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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.
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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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I consider it a mark of great prudence in a man to abstain from threats or any contemptuous expressions, for neither of these weaken the enemy, but threats make him more cautious, and the other excites his hatred, and a desire to revenge himself.
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