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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

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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
Power
Material
States
Merely
Populace
Men
Materials
Improvements
Capable
Organism
Either
Organisms
Moral
Vehicle
Party
Bringing
State
Improvement

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Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.
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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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Ability and perseverance are the weapons of weakness.
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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
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There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.
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Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
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He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.
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To know in war how to recognize an opportunity and seize it is better than anything else.
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Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.
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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.
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Hence it happened that all the armed prophets conquered, all the unarmed perished. [It., Di qui nacque che tutti li profeti armati vincero, e li disarmati rovinarono.]
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For, in truth, there is no sure way of holding other than by destroying
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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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We cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either.
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For government consists in nothing else but so controlling subjects that they shall neither be able to, nor have cause to do [it] harm.
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I'm not interested in preserving the status quo I want to overthrow it.
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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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All the States and Governments by which men are or ever have been ruled, have been and are either Republics or Princedoms.
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