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There is simply no comparison between a man who is armed and one who is not. It is simply unreasonable to expect that an armed man should obey one who is unarmed, or that an unarmed man should remain safe and secure when his servants are armed.

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
Expect
Unreasonable
Safe
Servants
Simply
Armed
War
Obey
Art
Comparison
Men
Servant
Secure
Remain
Unarmed

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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.
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Forgiveness proceeds from a generous soul.
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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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With difficulty he is beaten who can estimate his own forces and those of his enemy.
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There should be many judges, for few will always do the will of few.
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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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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.
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Those who either from imprudence or want of sagacity avoid doing so, are always overwhelmed with servitude and poverty for faithful servants are always servants, and honest men are always poor nor do any ever escape from servitude but the bold and faithless, or from poverty, but the rapacious and fraudulent.
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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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Cruelties should be committed all at once.
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Violence must be inflicted once for all people will then forget what it tastes like and so be less resentful. Benefits must be conferred gradually and in that way they will taste better.
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So in all human affairs one notices, if one examines them closely, that it is impossible to remove one inconvenience without another emerging.
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There is nothing as likely to succeed as what the enemy believes you cannot attempt.
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Men are less hesitant about harming someone who makes himself loved than one who makes himself feared because love is held together by a chain of obligation which, since men are wretched creatures, is broken on every occasion in which their own interests are concerned but fear is sustained by dread of punishment which will never abandon you.
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Any harm you do to a man should be done in such a way that you need not fear his revenge.
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The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.
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One arises from a low to a high station more often by using fraud instead of force.
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He who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation.
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A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.
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Gold will not always get you good soldiers, but good soldiers can get you gold.
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