Great Throughts Treasury

"Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new."

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

"For among other evils caused by being disarmed, it renders you contemptible; which is one of those disgraceful things which a prince must guard against."

"History is written by the victors. "

"From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved rather than feared, or feared rather than loved. It might perhaps be answered that we should wish to be both: but since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved [if you cannot be both.]"

"God creates men, but they choose each other. "

"He who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived. "

"How we live is so different from how we ought to live that he who studies what ought to be done rather than what is done will learn the way to his downfall rather than to his preservation. "

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

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

"It is much safer to be feared than loved because ...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails. "

"It is the nature of man to be bound by the benefits they confer as much as by those they receive."

"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. "

"It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones. "

"Men are driven by two principal impulses, either by love or by fear. "

"Men are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer to be tricked."

"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 in general judge more by the sense of sight than by the sense of touch, because everyone can see but few can test by feeling. Everyone sees what you seem to be, few know what you really are; and those few do not dare take a stand against the general opinion. "

"Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration. "

"Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel. Everyone sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are."

"Men never do good unless necessity drives them to it; but when they are free to choose and can do just as they please, confusion and disorder become rampant. "

"Men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge. "

"Never was anything great achieved without danger. "

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

"One can say this in general of men: they are ungrateful, disloyal, insincere and deceitful, timid of danger and avid of profit... Love is a bond of obligation that these miserable creatures break whenever it suits them to do so; but fear holds them fast by a dread of punishment that never passes. "

"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."

"The end justifies the means. "

"The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous."

"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."

"The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all. "

"The sinews of war are not gold, but good soldiers; for gold alone will not procure good soldiers, but good soldiers will always procure gold."

"The vulgar crowd always is taken by appearances, and the world consists chiefly of the vulgar. "

"There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others."

"There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you. "

"There is nothing more important than appearing to be religious. "

"When evening comes, I return home and go into my study. On the threshold I strip off my muddy, sweaty, workday clothes, and put on the robes of court and palace, and in this graver dress I enter the antique courts of the ancients and am welcomed by them, and there I taste the food that alone is mine, and for which I was born. And there I make bold to speak to them and ask the motives of their actions, and they, in their humanity, reply to me. And for the space of four hours I forget the world, remember no vexation, fear poverty no more, tremble no more at death: I pass indeed into their world. "

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

"A prince must be prudent enough to know how to escape the bad reputation of those vices that would lose the state for him, and must protect himself from those that will not lose it for him, if this is possible; but if he cannot, he need not concern himself unduly if he ignores these less serious vices."

"When you disarm your subjects you offend them by showing that either from cowardliness or lack of faith, you distrust them; and either conclusion will induce them to hate you."

"Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds."

"Wise men say, and not without reason, that whoever wished to foresee the future might consult the past."

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

"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."

"There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt."

"Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil."

"So long as the great majority of men are not deprived of either property or honor, they are satisfied."

"Thus it is well to seem merciful, faithful, humane, sincere, religious, and also to be so; but you must have the mind so disposed that when it is needful to be otherwise you may be able to change to the opposite qualities. And it must be understood that a prince, and especially a new prince, cannot observe all those things which are considered good in men, being often obliged, in order to maintain the state, to act against faith, against charity, against humanity, and against religion."

"It may be observed that provinces, among the vicissitudes to which they are accustomed, pass from order to confusion, and afterwards pass again into a state of order. The way of the world doesn’t allow things to continue on an even course; as soon as they arrive at their greatest perfection, they again start to decline. Likewise, having sunk to their utmost state of depression, unable to descend lower, they necessarily reascend. And so from good, they naturally decline to evil. Valor produces peace, and peace repose; repose, disorder; disorder, ruin. From ruin order again springs, and from order virtue, and from this glory, and good fortune"

"A general rule is drawn which never or rarely fails: that he who is the cause of another becoming powerful is ruined; because that pre-dominancy has been brought about either by astuteness or else by force, and both are distrusted by him who has been raised to power."