Quote

We have not seen great things done in our time except by those who have been considered mean the rest have failed.

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
Done
Mean
Great
Failed
Things
Considered
Time
Except
Rest
Seen

More quotes by Niccolo Machiavelli

Image
A wise ruler should rely on what is under his own control, not on what is under the control of others.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
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
Image
I hope and hoping feeds my pain I weep and weeping feeds my failing heart I laugh but the laughter does not pass within I burn but the burning makes no mark outside.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
From this arises the question whether 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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Any harm you do to a man should be done in such a way that you need not fear his revenge.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
For without invention, no one was ever a great man in his own trade.
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
With difficulty he is beaten who can estimate his own forces and those of his enemy.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
As all those have shown who have discussed civil institutions, and as every history is full of examples, it is necessary to whoever arranges to found a Republic and establish laws in it, to presuppose that all men are bad and that they will use their malignity of mind every time they have the opportunity.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
And when he is obliged to take the life of any one, to do so when there is a proper justification and manifest reason for it but above all he must abstain from taking the property of others, for men forget more easily the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
...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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
(A ruler) cannot and should not keep his word when to do so would go against his interests or when the reason he pledged it no longer holds.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Occasionally words must serve to veil the facts. But let this happen in such a way that no one become aware of it or, if it should be noticed, excuses must be at hand to be produced immediately.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Men are always averse to enterprises in which they foresee difficulties.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Laa shay'a waqi'un moutlaq bale kouloun moumkine...We work in the Dark, to serve the Light.
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
The wish to acquire more is admittedly a very natural and common thing and when men succeed in this they are always praised rather than condemned. But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
How perilous it is to free a people who prefer slavery.
Niccolo Machiavelli