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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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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
Well
Beast
Imitate
Must
Thus
Foxes
Protect
Recognise
Wish
Lion
War
Obliged
Art
Prince
Cannot
Lions
Snares
Wells
Defend
Wolves
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It is better to be adventurous than cautious, because fortune is a woman.
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We cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either.
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Fear is secured by a dread of punishment.
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So long as the great majority of men are not deprived of either property or honor, they are satisfied.
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Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel. Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are.
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The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.
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Tardiness often robs us opportunity, and the dispatch of our forces.
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How we live is so different from how we ought to live that he who studies what ought to be done rather than what is done will learn the way to his downfall rather than to his preservation.
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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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Wise men say, and not without reason, that whosoever wished to foresee the future might consult the past.
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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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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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The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.
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Men are of three different capacities: one understands intuitively another understands so far as it is explained and a third understands neither of himself nor by explanation. The first is excellent, the second, commendable, and the third, altogether useless.
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Therefore, in order not to have to rob his subjects, to be able to defend himself, not to become poor and contemptible, and not to be forced to become rapacious, a prince must consider it of little importance if he incurs the name of miser, for this is one of the vices that permits him to rule.
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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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Never was anything great achieved without danger.
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Men are more apt to be mistaken in their generalizations than in their particular observations.
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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 whoever conquers a free Town, and does not demolish it, commits a great Error, and may expect to be ruin 'd himself.
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