Quote

One arises from a low to a high station more often by using fraud instead of force.

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
Arise
Lows
Using
Instead
High
Station
Force
Arises
Often
Fraud
Stations

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
Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.
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
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 must not have any objective nor any thought, nor take up any art, other than the art of war and its ordering and discipline because it is the only art that pertains to him who commands. And it is of such virtue that not only does it maintain those who were born princes, but many times makes men rise to that rank from private station.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Fear is secured by a dread of punishment.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Results are often obtained by impetuosity and daring which could never have been obtained by ordinary methods.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
The one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
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?
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
A prudent man... must behave like those archers who, if they are skillful, when the target seems too distant, know the capabilities of their bow and aim a good deal higher than their objective, not in order to shoot so high but so that by aiming high they can reach the target.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Men are always averse to enterprises in which they foresee difficulties.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Many have dreamed up republics and principalities that have never in truth been known to exist the gulf between how one should live and how one does live is so wide that a man who neglects what is actually done for what should be done learns the way to self-destruction rather than self-preservation.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Impetuosity and audacity often achieve what ordinary means fail to achieve.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good. Hence a prince who wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good, and use that knowledge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires.
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
With difficulty he is beaten who can estimate his own forces and those of his enemy.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
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
Image
War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Image
The state is not an organism capable of bringing either moral or material improvements to the populace...but merely a vehicle of power for the men and party in power.
Niccolo Machiavelli