511 Quotes by Niccolò Machiavelli

[...T]he ways of God have been manifested beyond example: the sea is divided, the cloud has led the way, the rock has poured forth water, it has rained manna, everything has contributed to your greatness; you ought to do the rest. God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us.

A prince need take little account of conspiracies if the people are disposed in his favor.

... one would like to be both [loved and feared], but as it is difficult to combine both love and fear, if one has to choose between them it is far safer to be feared than loved

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

Men must either be caressed or else destroyed.

For no man is found so prudent as to know how to adapt himself to these changes, both because he cannot deviate from the course to which nature inclines him, and because, having always prospered while adhering to one path, he cannot be persuaded that it would be well for him to forsake it. And so when occasion requires the cautious man to act impetuously, he cannot do so and is undone: whereas had he changed his nature with time and circumstances, his fortune would have been unchanged.

Os homens se esquecem com maior rapidez da morte de um pai que da perda de um patrimônio.

And what physicians say about consumptive illnesses is applicable here: that at the beginning, such an illness is easy to cure but difficult to diagnose; but as time passes, not having been recognized or treated at the outset, it becomes easy to diagnose but difficult to cure.

The aim of the people is more honest than that of the nobility, the latter desiring to oppress, and the former merely to avoid oppression.