511 Quotes by Niccolò Machiavelli

It is much better to tempt fortune where it can favor you than to see your certain ruin by not tempting it.

One of the great secrets of the day is to know how to take possession of popular prejudices and passions, in such a way as to introduce a confusion of principles which makes impossible all understanding between those who speak the same language and have the same interests.

Men are able to assist fortune but not to thwart her. They can weave her designs, but they cannot destroy them.

Impetuosity and audacity often achieve what ordinary means fail to achieve.

He who makes war his profession cannot be otherwise than vicious. War makes thieves, and peace brings them to the gallows.

A man who is used to acting in one way never changes; he must come to ruin when the times, in changing, no longer are in harmony with his ways.

One arises from a low to a high station more often by using fraud instead of force.

Men are so simple of mind, and so much dominated by their immediate needs, that a deceitful man will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived.

Men as a whole judge more with their eyes than with their hands.