Niccolò Machiavelli Quotes

“Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.”

“If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.”

“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”

“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.”

“It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.”

“It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.”

“The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.”

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

“One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.”

“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.”

“Never was anything great achieved without danger.”

“Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.”