Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes.
A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.
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.
Whoever conquers a free town and does not demolish it commits a great error and may expect to be ruined himself.
Hence it comes about that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.
The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.
No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
Politics have no relation to morals.
the wise man should always follow the roads that have been trodden by the great, and imitate those who have most excelled, so that if he cannot reach their perfection, he may at least acquire something of its savour.
Benefits should be conferred gradually; and in that way they will taste better.
One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.
There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.
He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.
The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.
