Niccolò Machiavelli Quotes

“To understand the nature of the people one must be a prince, and to understand the nature of the prince, one must be of the people”

“Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.”

“One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.”

“Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.”

“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.”

“It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.”

“Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.”

“Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.”

“Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.”

“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.”