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Ability and perseverance are the weapons of weakness.

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
Ability
Perseverance
Weakness
Weapons

More quotes by Niccolo Machiavelli

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One man should not be afraid of improving his posessions, lest they be taken away from him, or another deterred by high taxes from starting a new business. Rather, the Prince should be ready to reward men who want to do these things and those who endeavour in any way to increase the prosperity of their city or their state.
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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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Therefore the best fortress is to be found in the love of the people, for although you may have fortresses they will not save you if you are hated by the people.
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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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Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.
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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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A wise man will see to it that his acts always seem voluntary and not done by compulsion, however much he may be compelled by necessity.
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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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So long as the great majority of men are not deprived of either property or honor, they are satisfied.
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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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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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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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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A government which does not trust its citizens to be armed is not itself to be trusted.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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It may be observed, that provinces amid the vicissitudes to which they are subject, pass from order into confusion, and afterward recur to a state of order again for the nature of mundane affairs not allowing them to continue in an even course, when they have arrived at their greatest perfection, they soon begin to decline.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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It is better to be loved rather than feared, or feared rather than loved? It might perhaps be answered that we should wish to be both: but since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.
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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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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A wise ruler should rely on what is under his own control, not on what is under the control of others.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Men are more ready to offend one who desires to be beloved than one who wishes to be feared.
Niccolo Machiavelli