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Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes
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130 Quotes on Relationships, Power, Deceit, and Human Nature

Discover Niccolo Machiavelli's profound wisdom on relationships, adaptability, power, deceit, and human nature. Delve into his famous quotes for valuable lessons on life and leadership.

Niccolò Machiavelli was an influential Italian diplomat, author, philosopher, and historian during the Renaissance. Known as the father of modern political philosophy and political science, he is best remembered for his political treatise, The Prince. Machiavelli served as a senior official in the Florentine Republic and was responsible for diplomatic and military affairs. He wrote numerous works including comedies, carnival songs, poetry, and personal correspondence. He believed that politics involved deception and treachery, and his ideas continue to spark controversy to this day.

Born into a tumultuous era in Florence in 1469, Machiavelli was educated in grammar, rhetoric, Latin, and possibly Greek. Throughout his career, he carried out diplomatic missions for Florence to various cities such as Rome and Pistoia. He witnessed the state-building methods of Cesare Borgia and Pope Alexander VI in their attempt to gain control over Central Italy. In 1506, Machiavelli initiated the creation of a militia for Florence composed of citizen-soldiers instead of mercenaries. However, his success was short-lived as the Medici family regained power with Spanish troops in 1512. Machiavelli was removed from office and banished from Florence but continued to write political treatises while residing on his farm estate. He died in 1527 at the age of 58 and was buried at the Church of Santa Croce in Florence.

Overall, Niccolò Machiavelli's provocative thoughts on politics and power have left a lasting impact on political philosophy throughout history.

✵ 3. May 1469 – 21. June 1527
Niccolo Machiavelli photo
Niccolo Machiavelli: 130   quotes 26   likes

Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes

“I hold strongly to this: that it is better to be impetuous than circumspect; because fortune is a woman and if she is to be submissive it is necessary to beat and coerce her.”

Niccolo Machiavelli

Source: The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli - Original Version

“It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Variant: It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things.
Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 6
Context: It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new. This coolness arises partly from fear of the opponents, who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of men, who do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them.

Success

“Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please.”

Niccolo Machiavelli Florentine Histories

Comincionsi le guerre quando altri vuole, ma non quando altri vuole si finiscono.
Variant translation: Wars are begun at will but not ended at will.
Book III, Chapter 7.
Florentine Histories (1526)

War

“The best possible fortress is—not to be hated by the people.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Variant: Variant translation: The best fortress which a prince can possess is the affection of his people.
Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 20: 'Are fortresses, and many other things to which princes often resort advantageous or hurtful?'

Hate , People

“It is the nature of men to be bound by the benefits they confer as much as by those they receive.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 10; translated by W. K. Marriot

Men , Nature

“The people resemble a wild beast, which, naturally fierce and accustomed to live in the woods, has been brought up, as it were, in a prison and in servitude, and having by accident got its liberty, not being accustomed to search for its food, and not knowing where to conceal itself, easily becomes the prey of the first who seeks to incarcerate it again.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book Discourses on Livy

Book 1, Ch. 16
Discourses on Livy (1517)

People , Food , Search , Nature

“And therefore a prince who does not understand the art of war, over and above the other misfortunes already mentioned, cannot be respected by his soldiers, nor can he rely on them. He ought never, therefore, to have out of his thoughts this subject of war, and in peace he should addict himself more to its exercise than in war; this he can do in two ways, the one by action, the other by study.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 14; translated by W. K. Marriot

War , Peace , Art , Way

“Bad company will lead a man to the gallows!”

Niccolo Machiavelli

Le cattive compagnie conducono gli uomini alle forche.
Act IV, scene vi
The Mandrake (1524)

“It is enough to ask somebody for his weapons without saying 'I want to kill you with them', because when you have his weapons in hand, you can satisfy your desire.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book Discourses on Livy

Book 1, Ch 44 (as translated by Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella)
Discourses on Livy (1517)

“For as when much superfluous matter has gathered in simple bodies, nature makes repeated efforts to remove and purge it away, thereby promoting the health of these bodies, so likewise as regards that composite body the human race, when every province of the world so teems with inhabitants that they can neither subsist where they are nor remove elsewhere, every region being equally crowded and over-peopled, and when human craft and wickedness have reached their highest pitch, it must needs come about that the world will purge herself in one or another of these three ways, to the end that men, becoming few and contrite, may amend their lives and live with more convenience.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book Discourses on Livy

Book 1 Ch. 5 (as translated by Ninian Hill Thomson)
Discourses on Livy (1517)

Men , People , Health , World

“It should be noted that hatred is acquired as much by good works as by bad ones, therefore, as I said before, a prince wishing to keep his state is very often forced to do evil.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

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

Evil

“When evening comes, I return home and enter my study; on the threshold I take off my workday clothes, covered with mud and dirt, and put on the garments of court and palace. Fitted out appropriately, I step inside the venerable courts of the ancients, where, solicitously received by them, I nourish myself on that food that alone is mine and for which I was born; where I am unashamed to converse with them and to question them about the motives for their actions, and they, out of their human kindness, answer me. And for four hours at a time I feel no boredom, I forget all my troubles, I do not dread poverty, and I am not terrified by death. I absorb myself into them completely.”

Niccolo Machiavelli

Letter to Francesco Vettori http://www2.idehist.uu.se/distans/ilmh/Ren/flor-mach-lett-vettori.htm (10 December 1513), in James Atkinson (trans.), Prince Machiavelli (1976), p. 19

Death , Food , Feeling , Home

“Hence it comes that all armed prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed prophets have been destroyed.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 6; translated by N. H. Thomson

Victory

“There are three classes of intellects: one which comprehends by itself; another which appreciates what others comprehend; and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others; the first is the most excellent, the second is good, and the third is useless.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 22; translated by W. K. Marriot

“Men are so simple, and so subject to present necessities, that he who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 18; translated by W. K. Marriot

Men

“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; and if such malignity is hidden for a time, it proceeds from the unknown reason that would not be known because the experience of the contrary had not been seen, but time, which is said to be the father of every truth, will cause it to be discovered.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book Discourses on Livy

Book 1, Ch. 3 Variant portion: Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasion for it.
Discourses on Livy (1517)

Men , Truth , Law , History

“It may be observed, that provinces amid the vicissitudes to which they are subject, pass from order into confusion, and afterward recur to a state of order again; for the nature of mundane affairs not allowing them to continue in an even course, when they have arrived at their greatest perfection, they soon begin to decline. In the same manner, having been reduced by disorder, and sunk to their utmost state of depression, unable to descend lower, they, of necessity, reascend; and thus from good they gradually decline to evil, and from evil again return to good. The reason is, that valor produces peace; peace, repose; repose, disorder; disorder, ruin; so from disorder order springs; from order virtue, and from this, glory and good fortune.”

Niccolo Machiavelli Florentine Histories

Book V, Chapter 1 http://www.readprint.com/chapter-7136/Niccolo-Machiavelli
Florentine Histories (1526)

Peace , Spring , Nature , Evil

“This return of Republics back to their principles also results from the simple virtue of one man, without depending on any law that excites him to any execution: none the less, they are of such influence and example that good men desire to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life contrary to those examples.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book Discourses on Livy

Book 3, Ch. 1
Discourses on Livy (1517)

Life , Men , Law , Dependency

“Fear of evil is greater than the evil itself.”

Niccolo Machiavelli

Sono maggiori li spaventi ch'e mali.
Act III, scene xi
The Mandrake (1524)

Fear , Evil

“When Machiavelli came to the end of his life, he had a vision shortly before giving up the ghost. He saw a small company of poor scoundrels, all in rags, ill-favoured, famished, and, in short, in as bad plight as possible. He was told that these were the inhabitants of paradise, of whom it is written, Beati pauperes, quoniam ipsorum est regnum caelorum.. After this, he was asked to which of the groups he would choose to belong; he answered that he would much rather be in Hell with those great geniuses, to converse with them about affairs of state, than be condemned to the company of the verminous scoundrels that he had first been shown.”

Niccolo Machiavelli

This account of Machiavelli's """"Dream"""" was not published until a century after his death, in Etienne Binet's Du salut d'Origene (1629).
There is an earlier but more oblique reference in a letter written by Giovambattista Busini in 1549: """"Upon falling ill, [Machiavelli] took his usual pills and, becoming weaker as the illness grew worse, told his famous dream to Filippo [Strozzi], Francesco del Nero, Iacopo Nardi and others, and then reluctantly died, telling jokes to the last."""".
The """"Dream"""" is commonly condensed into a more pithy form, such as """"I desire to go to hell, and not to heaven. In the former place I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings, and princes, while in the latter are only beggars, monks, hermits, and apostles"""".
Disputed

Life , Hell

“Never let any Government imagine that it can choose perfectly safe courses… Prudence consists in knowing how to distinguish the character of troubles, and for choice to take the lesser evil.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 21; translated by W. K. Marriot

Imagination , Evil

“A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 18

“Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 14; translated by W. K. Marriot

Evil

“God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 26; translated by W. K. Marriot

God

“The first opinion which one forms of a prince, and of his understanding, is by observing the men he has around him; and when they are capable and faithful he may always be considered wise, because he has known how to recognize the capable and to keep them faithful. But when they are otherwise one cannot form a good opinion of him, for the prime error which he made was in choosing them.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Variant: Variant translation: The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.
Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 22; translated by W. K. Marriot

Men , Faith , Error , Understanding

“A man who wishes to act entirely up to his professions of virtue soon meets with what destroys him among so much that is evil.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Variant: A man who strives after goodness in all his acts is sure to come to ruin, since there are so many men who are not good.
Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 15; translated by W. K. Marriot

Evil

“Such-like deaths, which are deliberately inflicted with a resolved and desperate courage, cannot be avoided by princes, because any one who does not fear to die can inflict them.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

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

Death , Fear , Courage

“In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king.”

Niccolo Machiavelli

In terra di ciechi chi vi ha un occhio è signore.
Act III, scene ix
The Mandrake (1524)

“War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

This is a quotation of Titus Livius IX:1 iustum enim est bellum quibus necessarium, et pia arma ubi nulla in armis spes est) that Machiavelli uses in Ch. 24 of Discourses on Livy; Machiavelli similarly writes that "The justice of the cause is conspicuous; for that war is just which is necessary, and those arms are sacred from which we derive our only hope." (The Prince, Ch. 26)
Misattributed

War , Hope

“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

Ошибочно приписываемые

“Time drives everything before it, and is able to bring with it good as well as evil, and evil as well as good.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Original: (it) Il tempo si caccia innanzi ogni cosa, e può condurre seco bene come male, male come bene.
Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 3, as translated by M. K. Marriot (1908)

Time , Evil