511 Quotes by Niccolò Machiavelli

Therefore, it is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares and a lion to terrify the wolves.

I’m not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.

I hope and hoping feeds my pain I weep and weeping feeds my failing heart I laugh but the laughter does not pass within I burn but the burning makes no mark outside.

States that rise quickly, just as all the other things of nature that are born and grow rapidly, cannot have roots and ramifications; the first bad weather kills them.

One must be a fox to recognize traps and a lion to frighten wolves.

He who builds on the people, builds on the mud.

He who becomes a Prince through the favour of the people should always keep on good terms with them; which it is easy for him to do, since all they ask is not to be oppressed.

It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things.

He who is the cause of another’s advancement is thereby the cause of his own ruin.