The Malice of Fortune Quotes

“Where war goes on without end, all men are inevitably corrupted by its brutality -- and the worst horrors are visited upon the most innocent.”
― Michael Ennis, The Malice of Fortune

“This explained to me--and I suppose, forgave me--my inability to see the face of this man, because whoever must deceive us in order to live will by necessity far exceed the skill of ordinary men, who are as much tempted by the desire to be honest as they are plagued by guilt and shame when they have broken faith.”
― Michael Ennis, The Malice of Fortune

“The times change, but the nature of men does not. Such men ... will not find our new age more favorable, and they will tell us that their evils are only necessities of the times. But they will linger in the house of the Devil, savor his vintage, and acquire a taste for it.”
― Michael Ennis, The Malice of Fortune

“Nevertheless I would be a hypocrite not to anticipate that the good intentions I brought to The Prince will also be the root of some other man's evil, if only because the way to the house of the Devil is the same for the good man and the bad - and the journey just as necessary for them both. The times change, but the nature of men does not.”
― Michael Ennis, The Malice of Fortune

“I did not have an answer for the maestro that day. Instead my answer has been the labor of my life, principally my Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livy but also my little Prince. Despite what so many say, I did not embark upon this voyage to show men how evil can triumph, but to demonstrate that evil surely will triumph if good men do not strive to learn well its lessons. And now that my usefulness, if not my life itself, has ended, I can say before God and man that I have met the challenge of the great maestro of revered memory issued on the road to Cesenatico. For in my life's work, I crossed the unknown sea and charted a route for all men to follow, should they wish to live in peace and security.”
― Michael Ennis, The Malice of Fortune

“My object in The Prince was to show defeated Italy a model of her savior, a man as perfect in the bold acquisition of power as Michelangelo Buonarroti’s great marble David is a perfect illustration of the human form and divine spirit. Just as Michelangelo did not portray David the murderer and adulterer, I did not represent the entirety of the man I took as my model.”
― Michael Ennis, The Malice of Fortune

“I no longer believed that Valentino would continue to build anything at all. Instead, he would merely leave behind the empire of hope that he had constructed in each of our minds. Leonardo's empire boasted cities more perfect than Plato or Augustine could have imagined. My empire of hope was an Italy defended by citizen soldiers rather than mercenary thugs, free of tyranny and foreign armies, with justice for all regardless of rank or wealth. But I feared I had come to Cesenatico only to wander among its ruins.”
― Michael Ennis, The Malice of Fortune

“Fortune’s final irony is that the uncertain world she still rules continues to struggle between Machiavelli’s two competing visions. The democratic idealism of the Discourses, however, is remembered only by scholars, while The Prince, its harsh remedies penned on the eve of destruction—and a terrifying secret buried between its lines—has become both a literary icon and a perennial fixture of popular culture.”
― Michael Ennis, The Malice of Fortune

“If Machiavelli had not made Valentino the model for The Prince, however, it is unlikely he would have achieved his own immortality. Machiavelli’s magnum opus, Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livy, represented his true political philosophy: An ardent champion of the Florentine republic, Machiavelli preferred the imperfect wisdom of the people to the will of princes and passionately advocated representative government—a radical egalitarianism that would not become a potent political force until the American and French revolutions more than 250 years later. The Prince was, in effect, merely Machiavelli’s plan B: what to do when political prudence has long been disregarded, chaos reigns, and the only choice is between effective or ineffective despotism”
― Michael Ennis, The Malice of Fortune

“There are many places we will go to answer a question, where prudence would dictate otherwise.”
― Michael Ennis, The Malice of Fortune

“Everyone sees what you appear to be, few truly know what you are; and those few dare not oppose the opinion of the many.”
― Michael Ennis, The Malice of Fortune

“Men are never content with what they have, Secretary.” Tilting back his head, Valentino emptied his cup and set it on the floor beside his stool. “Yet a man must never aspire to more than he can seize with his own hand.”
― Michael Ennis, The Malice of Fortune

“Any man who under all conditions insists on making it his business to be good, will surely be destroyed among so many who are not good.”
― Michael Ennis, The Malice of Fortune

“Here I would also follow in the steps of the ancients. Historians such as Titus Livy and Herodotus. I would look into the past, as they did, and speculate that the same forces that compel nations and empires to rise and fall will always be repeated, in endless cycle, throughout history. Understand the past, and one can anticipate what is to come. Understand the nature of men, and one can anticipate what men will do.” He nodded, but as if he did not entirely accept my prescription. “Then that is the error in this science of anticipation. The nature of men. Surely in this new age, this rebirth of humanity, we are changed men, different even than our own fathers. How can you anticipate a new man?” He had mined the very foundation of my science; had I been less fixed in my fundamental conviction, or had his question been more oblique, I might have accepted this chastisement.”
― Michael Ennis, The Malice of Fortune

“He made a flicking motion of his hand. “But men take action only when Fortune—or other men—have already undermined the foundations of their security. And when that edifice begins to topple they can only run for the doors. Why do you suppose that men refuse to anticipate events?” “It is the nature of men to see things as they are, not as they will be,” I answered. “But we have also abandoned the science of anticipation, which the ancients established. Instead, since the fall of imperial Rome, men have surrendered their fates to God, Fortune, and the Church—none of which will save us when the waters rise or the pillars of the house begin to fall.” “The science of anticipation. To see ahead, to peer through the clouds of complacency without relying on the fictions of prophets, seers, and stargazers.” Valentino spoke as if he were in a studiolo, examining some new antiquity or curiosity. “To anticipate events before Fortune herself can turn her great wheel. How would you create such a science?”
― Michael Ennis, The Malice of Fortune

“My dearest, most darling Niccolò. The greatest love is nothing but faith. A faith that can bear all burdens, all doubts, and never be exhausted.” Here she stood up, took me in her arms, and whispered next to my ear. “To truly love another person requires more faith than even God asks of us.”
― Michael Ennis, The Malice of Fortune

“At our first breath, we begin to race Fortune.” Valentino spoke as if he had already surrendered his hope of defeating her. “She draws a map of each man’s life, marking the distance that bounds our mortality, requiring of us that we race against her, ever faster, toward the oblivion that lies beyond. Santa Maria, that distance is short, the contest brief.” I thought I saw a glimmer at the corner of his eye. “Perhaps the nun of Mantua simply saw Fortune’s map of my life. Because if I do not find this schoolboy’s geometry, then all this, all my hopes for a new Italy, will be consumed more quickly than straw in a fire.”
― Michael Ennis, The Malice of Fortune

“As Lucretius says, ‘We draw large deductions from small indications, and so bring ourselves to deception and delusion.’ ” I was not entirely surprised that he laughed, even if he was the joke.”
― Michael Ennis, The Malice of Fortune