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The ends justifies the means.

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
Justifies
Justify
Means
Ends
Mean

More quotes by Niccolo Machiavelli

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The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love.
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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Without doubt, ferocious and disordered men are much weaker than timid and ordered ones. For order chases fear from men and disorder lessens ferocity.
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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When they remain in garrison, soldiers are maintained with fear and punishment when they are then led to war, with hope and reward.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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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
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Good order and discipline in any army are to be depended upon more than courage alone.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Men are more apt to be mistaken in their generalizations than in their particular observations.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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A prince is also respected when he is a true friend and a true enemy that is, when he declares himself on the side of one prince against another without any reservation.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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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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A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Men ought either to be well treated, or crushed.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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A prince being thus obliged to know well how to act as a beast must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from snares, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Every little advantage is of great moment when men have to come to blows.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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....for friendships that are acquired by a price and not by greatness and nobility of character are purchased but are not owned, and at the proper moment they cannot be spent.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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For without invention, no one was ever a great man in his own trade.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.
Niccolo Machiavelli