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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.

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
Either
Fraud
High
Seldom
Force
Condition
Power
Rise
Without
Lows
Employing
Men
Gift
Attained
Unless
Rank
Conditions
Inheritance

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Men are more apt to be mistaken in their generalizations than in their particular observations.
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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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Human beings remain constant in their methods of conduct.
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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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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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Everyone who wants to know what will happen ought to examine what has happened: everything in this world in any epoch has their replicas in antiquity.
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The innovator has for enemies all who have done well under the old, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.
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...it is a base thing to look to others for your defense instead of depending upon yourself. That defense alone is effectual, sure, and durable which depends upon yourself and your own valor.
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If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
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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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There are three kinds of brains. The one understands things unassisted, the other understands things when shown by others, the third understands neither alone nor with the explanations of others.
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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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How perilous it is to free a people who prefer slavery.
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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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He who builds on the people, builds on the mud
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The sinews of war are not gold, but good soldiers.
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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.
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