Niccolo Machiavelli: Trending quotes (page 6)

“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 book The Art of War

Book 1
The Art of War (1520)

Dead

“One must never forget to look at the aim of a matter.”

Niccolo Machiavelli

El fine si ha a riguardare in tutte le cose.
Act III, scene xi
The Mandrake (1524)

Forgetting

“Upon this, one has to remark that men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 3; Variant translation: Never do any enemy a small injury for they are like a snake which is half beaten and it will strike back the first chance it gets.

Men , Fear , Revenge

“The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms; and as there cannot be good laws where the state is not well armed, it follows that where they are well armed they have good laws.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 12; translated by W. K. Marriot

Law

“Because there is nothing proportionate between the armed and the unarmed; and it is not reasonable that he who is armed should yield obedience willingly to him who is unarmed, or that the unarmed man should be secure among armed servants. Because, there being in the one disdain and in the other suspicion, it is not possible for them to work well together.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Variant: There can be no proper relation between one who is armed and one who is not. Nor it is reasonable to expect that one who is armed will voluntarily obey one who is not.
Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 14; translated by W. K. Marriot

“Cunning and deceit will every time serve a man better than force to rise from a base condition to great fortune.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book Discourses on Livy

Book 2, Ch. 13
Discourses on Livy (1517)

Time

“No circumstance is ever so desperate that one cannot nurture some spark of hope.”

Niccolo Machiavelli

Non è mai alcuna cosa sì disperata, che non vi sia qualche via da poterne sperare.
Act I, scene i
The Mandrake (1524)

Hope

“When Scipio became consul and was keen on getting the province of Africa, promising that Carthage should be completely destroyed, and the senate would not agree to this because Fabius Maximus was against it, he threatened to appeal to the people, for he knew full well how pleasing such projects are to the populace.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book Discourses on Livy

Book 1, Ch. 53 (as translated by LJ Walker and B Crick)
Discourses on Livy (1517)

People

“To understand the nature of the people it needs to be a prince, and to understand that of princes it needs to be of the people.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

A cognoscer bene la natura de' popoli bisogna esser Principe, ed a cognoscer bene quella de' Principi conviene essere popolare.
Dedication
The Prince (1513)

People , Understanding , Nature

“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 book Discourses on Livy

Book 1, Ch. 6 (as translated by LJ Walker and B Crick)
Discourses on Livy (1517)

“It was the verdict of ancient writers that men afflict themselves in evil and weary themselves in the good, and that the same effects result from both of these passions. For whenever men are not obliged to fight from necessity, they fight from ambition; which is so powerful in human breasts, that it never leaves them no matter to what rank they rise. The reason is that nature has so created men that they are able to desire everything but are not able to attain everything: so that the desire being always greater than the acquisition, there results discontent with the possession and little satisfaction to themselves from it. From this arises the changes in their fortunes; for as men desire, some to have more, some in fear of losing their acquisition, there ensues enmity and war, from which results the ruin of that province and the elevation of another.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book Discourses on Livy

Book 1, Ch. 37 Variant: Nature has so contrived that to men, though all things are objects of desire, not all things are attainable; so that desire always exceeds the power of attainment, with the result that men are ill-content with what they possess and their present state brings them little satisfaction. Hence arise the vicissitudes of their fortune. (as translated by LJ Walker and B Crick)
Discourses on Livy (1517)

Men , War , Fear , Nature

“The end of the republic is to enervate and to weaken all other bodies so as to increase its own body.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book Discourses on Livy

Book 2, Ch. 3 (translation by Mansfield and Tarcov)
Discourses on Livy (1517)

“It is necessary for a prince wishing to hold his own to know how to do wrong, and to make use of it or not according to necessity.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 15; translated by W. K. Marriot

“That which is good for the enemy harms you, and that which is good for you harms the enemy.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Art of War

Quello che giova al nimico nuoce a te, e quel che giova a te nuoce al nimico.
Rule 1 from Machiavelli's Lord Fabrizio Colonna: libro settimo (Book 7) http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101013672561;view=1up;seq=176 (Modern Italian uses nemico instead of nimico.)
The Art of War (1520)

“A prince who is not wise himself will never take good advice.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Variant: Variant translation: A prince who is not wise himself cannot be wisely counseled.
Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 23; translated by W. K. Marriot

http://www.friesian.com/econ.htm

“Well-ordered states and wise princes have taken every care not to drive the nobles to desperation, and to keep the people satisfied and contented, for this is one of the most important objects a prince can have.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 19; translated by W. K. Marriot

People

“He who believes that new benefits will cause great personages to forget old injuries is deceived.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 7; translated by W. K. Marriott

Forgetting

“In judging policies we should consider the results that have been achieved through them rather than the means by which they have been executed.”

Niccolo Machiavelli

From an undated letter to Piero Soderini (translated here by Dr. Arthur Livingston), in The Living Thoughts of Machiavelli, by Count Carlo Sforza, published by Cassell, London (1942), p. 85

“I assert once again as a truth to which history as a whole bears witness that men may second their fortune, but cannot oppose it; that they may weave its warp, but cannot break it. Yet they should never give up, because there is always hope, though they know not the end and more towards it along roads which cross one another and as yet are unexplored; and since there is hope, they should not despair, no matter what fortune brings or in what travail they find themselves.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book Discourses on Livy

Book 2, Ch. 29 (as translated by LJ Walker and B Crick)
Discourses on Livy (1517)

Men , Truth , Hope , History

“Finis sanctiflcat media ”

Niccolo Machiavelli

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