Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince
Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 15
Context: Many have imagined republics and principalities which have never been seen or known to exist in reality; for how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live, that he who abandons what is done for what ought to be done, will rather bring about his own ruin than his preservation.
Variant: Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.
Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince
Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 6; translated by Luigi Ricci
“You don't avoid such a war, you merely postpone it, to your own disadvantage.”
Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince
Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 3 (as translated by RM Adams)
Context: If someone puts up the argument that King Louis gave the Romagna to Pope Alexander, and the kingdom of Naples to Spain, in order to avoid a war, I would answer as I did before: that you should never let things get out of hand in order to avoid war. You don't avoid such a war, you merely postpone it, to your own disadvantage.
Niccolo Machiavelli book Discourses on Livy
Book 1, Ch. 3 (as translated by LJ Walker and B Crick)
Discourses on Livy (1517)
“it is better to act and repent than not to act and regret.”
Source: The Letters of Machiavelli