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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.

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
Political
Eight
Disarmed
States
Citizens
Liberties
Many
Hundred
Remained
Years
Liberty
Armed
Time
Four
Rome
Free
Forty
Less
Gun
Lost
Although
Sparta

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Never do your enemy a minor injury.
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For as laws are necessary that good manners be preserved, so there is need of good manners that law may be maintained.
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Therefore, a prudent ruler ought not to keep faith when by so doing it would be against his interest, and when the reasons which made him bind himself no longer exist. If men were all good, this precept would not be a good one but as they are bad, and would not observe their faith with you, so you are not bound to keep faith with them.
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By the delusions of seeming good the people are often misled to desire their own ruin and they are frequently influenced by great hopes and brave promises.
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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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To ensure victory the troops must have confidence in themselves as well as in their commanders.
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Men walk almost always in the paths trodden by others, proceeding in their actions by imitation.
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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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For one change always leaves a dovetail into which another will fit.
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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 is nothing as likely to succeed as what the enemy believes you cannot attempt.
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For, in truth, there is no sure way of holding other than by destroying
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One should never allow chaos to develop in order to avoid going to war, because one does not avoid a war but instead puts it off to his disadvantage
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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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And it will always happen that he who is not your friend will request your neutrality and he who is your friend will ask you to declare yourself by taking up arms. And irresolute princes, in order to avoid present dangers, follow the neutral road most of the time, and most of the time they are ruined.
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A son can bear with equanimity the loss of his father, but the loss of his inheritance may drive him to despair.
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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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Forgiveness proceeds from a generous soul.
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Men seldom rise from low condition to high rank without employing either force or fraud, unless that rank should be attained either by gift or inheritance.
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