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Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever shall be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same results.

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
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Necessarily
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Thus
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Preceding
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More quotes by Niccolo Machiavelli

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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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God creates men, but they choose each other.
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Speaking generally, men are ungrateful, fickle, hypocritical, fearful odanger and covetous ogain.
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...the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it.
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For the mob is always impressed by appearances and by results, and the world is composed of the mob.
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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.
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Fear is secured by a dread of punishment.
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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 reformer has enemies in all who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order.
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Ability and perseverance are the weapons of weakness.
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If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
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We have not seen great things done in our time except by those who have been considered mean the rest have failed.
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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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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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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.
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Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.
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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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We must distinguish between those who depend on others, that is between those who to achieve their purposes can force the issue and those who must use persuasion. In the second case, they always come to grief, having achieved nothing when, however, they depend on their own resources and can force the issue, then they are seldom endangered.
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Whoever takes it upon himself to establish a commonwealth and prescribe laws must presuppose all men naturally bad, and that they will yield to their innate evil passions as often as they can do so with safety.
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You do not know the unfathomable cowardice of humanity...servile in the face of force, pitiless in the face of weakness, implacable before blunders, indulgent before crimes...and patient to the point of martyrdom before all the violences of bold despotism.
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