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

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

"Never was anything great achieved without danger."
— Niccolò Machiavelli

"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."
— Niccolò Machiavelli (The Prince)

"There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you."
— Niccolò Machiavelli (Machiavelli Niccolo : Prince)

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

"…he who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived."
— Niccolò Machiavelli

"Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great. "
— Niccolò Machiavelli (The Prince)

"Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are."
— Niccolò Machiavelli (The Prince)

"Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved"
— Niccolò Machiavelli

"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. "
— Niccolò Machiavelli

"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."
— Niccolò Machiavelli (Machiavelli Niccolo : Prince)

"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."
— Niccolò Machiavelli

"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."
— Niccolò Machiavelli

"Quod Principi plaevit habet legis vigorem"
— Niccolò Machiavelli

"It is best to be both feared and loved; however, if one cannot be both it is better to be feared than loved."
— Niccolò Machiavelli (The Prince)

"All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it's impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer."
— Niccolò Machiavelli

"A prudent man should always follow in the path trodden by great men and imitate those who are most excellent, so that if he does not attain to their greatness, at any rate he will get some tinge of it."
— Niccolò Machiavelli (Prince)

"My view is that it is desirable to be both loved and feared; but it is difficult to achieve both and, if one of them has to be lacking, it is much safer to be feared than loved."
— Niccolò Machiavelli

"And it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things."
— Niccolò Machiavelli

"And truly it is a very natural and ordinary thing to desire to acquire, and always, when men do it who can, they will be praised or not blamed; but when they cannot, and wish to do it anyway, here lies the error and the blame."
— Niccolò Machiavelli (The Prince)

"Appear as you may wish to be"
— Niccolò Machiavelli

"God creates men, but they choose each other."
— Niccolò Machiavelli

"It is not titles that honour men, but men that honour titles."
— Niccolò Machiavelli

"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."
— Niccolò Machiavelli (The Prince)

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

"Verträge bricht man um des Nutzens willen."
— Niccolò Machiavelli (The Prince)

"Therefore, it is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares and a lion to terrify the wolves"
— Niccolò Machiavelli (Il Principle)

"And as the observance of religious teaching is the cause of the greatness of republics, similarly, disdain for it is the cause of their ruin. For where the fear of God is lacking, the state must necessarily either come to ruin or be held together by the fear of a prince that will compensate for the lack of religion."
— Niccolò Machiavelli

"It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both."
— Niccolò Machiavelli

"Is it better to be loved or feared?"
— Niccolò Machiavelli

"There is no avoiding war, it can only be postponed to the advantage of your enemy."
— Niccolò Machiavelli

"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."
— Niccolò Machiavelli

"as the physicians say it happens in hectic fever, that in the beginning of the malady it is easy to cure but difficult to detect, but in the course of time, not having been either detected or treated in the beginning, it becomes easy to detect but difficult to cure"
— Niccolò Machiavelli (The Prince)

"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."
— Niccolò Machiavelli (The Prince)

"Ognuno vede quello che tu pari, pochi sentono quello che tu se'"
— Niccolò Machiavelli (Il Principe)

"And although one should not reason about Moses, as he was a mere executor of things that had been ordered for him by God, nonetheless he should be admired if only for that grace which made him deserving of speaking with God. "
— Niccolò Machiavelli (The Prince)

"Though fraud in all other actions be odious, yet in matters of war it is laudable and glorious, and he who overcomes his enemies by stratagem is as much to be praised as he who overcomes them by force."
— Niccolò Machiavelli

"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."
— Niccolò Machiavelli (The Prince)

"Appear as you may wish to be"
— Niccolò Machiavelli

"A blunder ought never be perpetrated to avoid war, because it is not to be avoided, but is only deferred to your disadvantage."
— Niccolò Machiavelli (The Prince)