Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes.
I’m not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.
A sign of intelligence is an awareness of one’s own ignorance.
A government which does not trust its citizens to be armed is not itself to be trusted.
The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.
Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.
All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it’s impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.
The unarmed man is not just defenseless – he is also contemptible.
it is better to act and repent than not to act and regret.
The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow.
Hence it comes about that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.
The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.
It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.
A son can bear with equanimity the loss of his father, but the loss of his inheritance may drive him to despair.
The wish to acquire more is admittedly a very natural and common thing; and when men succeed in this they are always praised rather than condemned. But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes.
