Quote

For as laws are necessary that good manners be preserved, so there is need of good manners that law may be maintained.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Law
May
Need
Needs
Preserved
Good
Maintained
Manners
Laws
Necessary

More quotes by Niccolo Machiavelli

Image
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
Image
The prince who relies upon their words, without having otherwise provided for his security, is ruined for friendships that are won by awards, and not by greatness and nobility of soul, although deserved, yet are not real, and cannot be depended upon in time of adversity.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Men are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer to be tricked.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Still, a prince should make himself feared in such a way that if he does not gain love, he at any rate avoids hatred for fear and the absence of hatred may well go together, and will be always attained by one who abstains from interfering with the property of his citizens and subjects or with their women.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it's impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Men never do good unless necessity drives them to it but when they are free to choose and can do just as they please, confusion and disorder become rampant.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
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
Image
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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
I believe that it is possible for one to praise, without concern, any man after he is dead since every reason and supervision for adulation is lacking.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever shall be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same results.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
To keep your actions and your plans secret always has been a very good thing . .. Marcus Crassus said to one who asked him when he was going to move the army: 'Do you believe that you will be the only one not to hear the trumpet?
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
There is nothing as likely to succeed as what the enemy believes you cannot attempt.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Men ought either to be well treated, or crushed.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
The reformer has enemies in all who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
as the physicians say it happens in hectic fever, that in the beginning of the malady it is easy to cure but difficult to detect, but in the course of time, not having been either detected or treated in the beginning, it becomes easy to detect but difficult to cure
Niccolo Machiavelli