Niccolo Machiavelli

“Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good. Hence a prince who wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good, and use that knowledge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires.”

Book: The prince

“No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.”

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

“Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.”

“A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.”

“Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.”

“God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us.”

“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.”

“A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.”

“Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.”

“The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow.”

“Never was anything great achieved without danger.”

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

“Whoever conquers a free town and does not demolish it commits a great error and may expect to be ruined himself.”

“War is just when it is necessary arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.”

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

“The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.”

“The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love.”

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

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

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

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

“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.”

“The wish to acquire more is admittedly a very natural and common thing and when men succeed in this they are always praised rather than condemned. But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes.”