Explore 15 quotes by Niccolo Machiavelli

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Machiavelli, Niccolò. Il Principe [The Prince]. Rome: Antonio Blado d'Asola, 1532.

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Machiavelli, Nicolò. The Prince, translated by Peter Bondanella. Oxford University Press, 2005.

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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 occasions for it.

Discourses on Livy

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Machiavelli, Niccolò. Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio [Discourses on the First Ten of Titus Livy]. Papal Privilege, 1531, bk. 1, ch. 3

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Machiavelli, Niccolo. Discourses on Livy, translated by Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella. Oxford University Press, 2009, bk. 1, ch. 3.

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A prince being thus obliged to know well how to act as a beast must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.

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Original Citation

Machiavelli, Niccolò. Il Principe [The Prince]. Rome: Antonio Blado d'Asola, 1532.

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Current Citation

Machiavelli, Nicolò. The Prince, translated by Peter Bondanella. Oxford University Press, 2005.

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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.

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Machiavelli, Niccolò. Il Principe [The Prince]. Rome: Antonio Blado d'Asola, 1532.

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Current Citation

Machiavelli, Nicolò. The Prince, translated by Peter Bondanella. Oxford University Press, 2005.

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It is much safer to be feared than loved.

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Original Citation

Machiavelli, Niccolò. Il Principe [The Prince]. Rome: Antonio Blado d'Asola, 1532.

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Current Citation

Machiavelli, Nicolò. The Prince, translated by Peter Bondanella. Oxford University Press, 2005.

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He [the prince] holds to what is right when he can but knows how to do wrong when he must.

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Original Citation

Machiavelli, Niccolò. Il Principe [The Prince]. Rome: Antonio Blado d'Asola, 1532.

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Current Citation

Machiavelli, Nicolò. The Prince, translated by Peter Bondanella. Oxford University Press, 2005.

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So long as the great majority of men are not deprived of either property or honour, they are satisfied.

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Original Citation

Machiavelli, Niccolò. Il Principe [The Prince]. Rome: Antonio Blado d'Asola, 1532.

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Current Citation

Machiavelli, Nicolò. The Prince, translated by Peter Bondanella. Oxford University Press, 2005.

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

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Original Citation

Machiavelli, Niccolò. Il Principe [The Prince]. Rome: Antonio Blado d'Asola, 1532.

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Current Citation

Machiavelli, Nicolò. The Prince, translated by Peter Bondanella. Oxford University Press, 2005.

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This leads to a debate: is it better to be loved than feared, or the reverse? The answer is that it is desirable to be both, but because it is difficult to join them together, it is much safer for a prince to be feared than loved, if he is to fail in one of the two.

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Original Citation

Machiavelli, Niccolò. Il Principe [The Prince]. Rome: Antonio Blado d'Asola, 1532.

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Current Citation

Machiavelli, Nicolò. The Prince, translated by Peter Bondanella. Oxford University Press, 2005.

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It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.

Read Discourse on Livy at Project Gutenberg

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Machiavelli, Niccolò. Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio [Discourses on the First Ten of Titus Livy]. Papal Privilege, 1531, bk. 1, ch. 3.

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Machiavelli, Niccolo. Discourses on Livy, translated by Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella. Oxford University Press, 2009, bk. 1, ch. 3.

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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 most excellent, the second is good, the third is useless.

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Original Citation

Machiavelli, Niccolò. Il Principe [The Prince]. Rome: Antonio Blado d'Asola, 1532.

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Current Citation

Machiavelli, Nicolò. The Prince, translated by Peter Bondanella. Oxford University Press, 2005.

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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 neglects what is done for what ought to be done, will rather bring about his own ruin that his preservation.

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Original Citation

Machiavelli, Niccolò. Il Principe [The Prince]. Rome: Antonio Blado d'Asola, 1532.

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Current Citation

Machiavelli, Nicolò. The Prince, translated by Peter Bondanella. Oxford University Press, 2005.

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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.

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Original Citation

Machiavelli, Niccolò. Il Principe [The Prince]. Rome: Antonio Blado d'Asola, 1532.

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Current Citation

Machiavelli, Nicolò. The Prince, translated by Peter Bondanella. Oxford University Press, 2005.

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The cause of the bad and of the good fortune of men is the way in which their method of working fits the times.

Read Discourse on Livy at Project Gutenberg

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Original Citation

Machiavelli, Niccolò. Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio [Discourses on the First Ten of Titus Livy]. Papal Privilege, 1531, bk. 3, ch. 9.

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Machiavelli, Niccolo. Discourses on Livy, translated by Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella. Oxford University Press, 2009, bk. 3, ch. 9.

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Whoever is responsible for another's becoming powerful ruins himself.