Niccolo Machiavelli Famous Quotes
No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved.
"It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both."
"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 to things."
Men are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer to be tricked.
"A wise man ought always to follow the paths beaten by great men, and to imitate those who have been supreme, so that if his ability does not equal theirs, at least it will savor of it. Let him act like the clever archers who, designing to hit the mark which yet appears too far distant, and knowing the limits to which the strength of their bow attains, take aim much higher than the mark, not to reach by their strength or arrow to so great a height, but to be able with the aid of so high an aim to hit the mark they wish to reach."
"God creates men, but they choose each other."
"He who has not first laid his foundations may be able with great ability to lay them afterwards, but they will be laid with trouble to the architect and danger to the building."
"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."
"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."
"A prince should therefore have no other aim or thought, nor take up any other thing for his study but war and it organization and discipline, for that is the only art that is necessary to one who commands."
"He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss."
"Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved."
If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
"There is no other way of guarding oneself against flattery than by letting men understand that they will not offend you by speaking the truth but when everyone can tell you the truth, you lose their respect."
"Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel. Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are."
"When neither their property nor their honor is touched, the marjority of men live content."
Niccolo Machiavelli Quotations
Who takes the child by the hand takes the mother by the heart.
German proverb
The warning message we sent the Russians was a calculated ambiguity that would be clearly understood.
Alexander Meigs Haig
He who doesn't risk never gets to drink champagne.
Assyrian Proverb
"The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one's love upon other human individuals."
George Orwell
There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew.
Marshall McLuhan
Hope is the pillar that holds up the world. Hope is the dream of a waking man.
Pliny
Courage is like love it must have hope for nourishment.
Napoleon I
What is the sound of one hand clapping
Confucius
Kindness is the noblest weapon to conquer with.
American Proverb
We only do well the things we like doing.
Colette