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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.

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
Forget
Conferred
People
Less
Resentful
War
Inflicted
Art
Tastes
Better
Gradually
Benefits
Must
Taste
Way
Violence
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The peasant wants only to be left alone to prosper in peace.
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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.
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All the States and Governments by which men are or ever have been ruled, have been and are either Republics or Princedoms.
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It is necessary that the prince should know how to color his nature well, and how to be a hypocrite and dissembler. For men are so simple, and yield so much to immediate necessity, that the deceiver will never lack dupes.
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It makes him hated above all things, as I have said, to be rapacious, and to be a violator of the property and women of his subjects, from both of which he must abstain.
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There are three kinds of brains: One understands of itself, another can be taught to understand, and the third can neither understand to itself or be taught to understand.
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There is nothing so difficult or so dangerous as to undertake to change the order of things.
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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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Rome remained free for four hundred years and Sparta eight hundred, although their citizens were armed all that time but many other states that have been disarmed have lost their liberties in less than forty years.
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Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not to suffer.
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Whoever is the cause of another becoming powerful, is ruined himself for that power is produced by him either through craft or force and both of these are suspected by the one who has been raised to power.
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There is nothing that Nature seems to have inclined us to as much as society.
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Tardiness often robs us opportunity, and the dispatch of our forces.
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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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Where the very safety of the country depends upon the resolution to be taken, no consideration of justice or injustice, humanity or cruelty, nor of glory or of shame, should be allowed to prevail. But putting all other considerations aside, the only question should be: What course will save the life and liberty of the country?
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How perilous it is to free a people who prefer slavery.
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Speaking generally, men are ungrateful, fickle, hypocritical, fearful odanger and covetous ogain.
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I hold it to be of great prudence for men to abstain from threats and insulting words towards any one, for neither the one nor the other in any way diminishes the strength of the enemy but the one makes him more cautious, and the other increases his hatred of you, and makes him more persevering in his efforts to injure you
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To ensure victory the troops must have confidence in themselves as well as in their commanders.
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