What Would Machiavelli Do? Quotes

“The truth is your servant, not your master. What is the truth, anyway? Does any of us really know what’s true? And is truth an absolute? Can’t things be sort of true? A little bit true? True in a deeper sense? True enough for military work? True for me, not for you? All too true?”
― Stanley Bing, What Would Machiavelli Do?: The Ends Justify the Meanness – A Pithy, Vicious Guide to Corporate Warfare and Power

“Lying for a good business reason has become so prevalent that they had to invent a new, less censorious word for it. They call it positioning, and people get paid good money to do it, lucky for me.”
― Stanley Bing, What Would Machiavelli Do?: The Ends Justify the Meanness – A Pithy, Vicious Guide to Corporate Warfare and Power

“You get the picture. The marvelous thing about the human ego is that each one is slightly different. Deep inside you, there’s an enormously objectionable force yearning to leap forth and spew toxic goo all over the place. Let it flow!”
― Stanley Bing, What Would Machiavelli Do?: The Ends Justify the Meanness – A Pithy, Vicious Guide to Corporate Warfare and Power

“So this smart, overpaid, sassy dude goes into his first major meeting with our then-CEO, Mark. He spends a fair amount of time shitting on the efforts of the corporation to date, and making a lot of noises about revamping the entire landscape and not with a spade and shovel, either, no, with some very heavy machinery. In the process, he evinces almost no particular knowledge of our company, and also manages to poop on the parades of everyone sitting around the table, including Mark’s.”
― Stanley Bing, What Would Machiavelli Do?: The Ends Justify the Meanness – A Pithy, Vicious Guide to Corporate Warfare and Power

“Anyhow, his basic philosophy was encapsulated in his famous statement, “I have an agreement with my people. They can say what they want. I can do what I want.”
― Stanley Bing, What Would Machiavelli Do?: The Ends Justify the Meanness – A Pithy, Vicious Guide to Corporate Warfare and Power

“The real Machiavellian, like the infant, believes there is nothing bigger or more important than him or herself. To succeed, you will need to achieve that view, to return to the liberating egocentrism of the selfish, amoral child who wants what he wants and permits nothing to get in its way.”
― Stanley Bing, What Would Machiavelli Do?: The Ends Justify the Meanness – A Pithy, Vicious Guide to Corporate Warfare and Power

“Even now, and you can look at me: Am I a savage person? My conscience is clear. —POL POT The eradication of conscience is one of the toughest things you’re going to have to learn. Not everyone can do it.”
― Stanley Bing, What Would Machiavelli Do?: The Ends Justify the Meanness – A Pithy, Vicious Guide to Corporate Warfare and Power

“It depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is,” he told his tormentors, and many Americans shook their heads in wonder, not only at the ridiculousness of the statement, but at the tenacity and toughness of a true Machiavelli who would not, could not, let his enemies use their version of the truth to defeat him.”
― Stanley Bing, What Would Machiavelli Do?: The Ends Justify the Meanness – A Pithy, Vicious Guide to Corporate Warfare and Power

“Bill Clinton has perhaps been the most amazing practitioner of truth management in public life. He’s had to be. Beset by enemies willing to use any tool to do him in, he let the truth out like a fly fisherman plays out a line, delicately, artfully, with infinite finesse, never emitting more truth than necessary, struggling mightily to tell us what he could without admitting defeat.”
― Stanley Bing, What Would Machiavelli Do?: The Ends Justify the Meanness – A Pithy, Vicious Guide to Corporate Warfare and Power

“When a general gave unwanted advice at a meeting, Saddam ordered him to stand, and shot him six times. —FIRST-PERSON ACCOUNT, SADDAM HUSSEIN WEB HIT”
― Stanley Bing, What Would Machiavelli Do?: The Ends Justify the Meanness – A Pithy, Vicious Guide to Corporate Warfare and Power

“Do you mind if I sit back a little? Because your breath is bad—it really is. —DONALD TRUMP, TO LARRY KING, ON CNN’S “LARRY KING”
― Stanley Bing, What Would Machiavelli Do?: The Ends Justify the Meanness – A Pithy, Vicious Guide to Corporate Warfare and Power

“It’s damned hard to fire another human being face-to-face, which is why you sort of have to congratulate Ted Turner, who took it upon himself to fire his own son from the family business—over dinner.”
― Stanley Bing, What Would Machiavelli Do?: The Ends Justify the Meanness – A Pithy, Vicious Guide to Corporate Warfare and Power

“I believe the principles of structural revolution are the same,” Lou Gerstner pointed out in the middle of his positive transformation of IBM. “First, it takes personal commitment on the part of the CEO. This is not a job you can delegate. Second, it takes a willingness to confront and expel the people and the organizations that are throwing up roadblocks to the changes you consider critical.”
― Stanley Bing, What Would Machiavelli Do?: The Ends Justify the Meanness – A Pithy, Vicious Guide to Corporate Warfare and Power

“To live true to the vision of the master, we must be as selfish, narcissistic, manipulative, driven, and creative in getting what we want as we can be, not just in our important business actions, but where it really counts: in our hearts.”
― Stanley Bing, What Would Machiavelli Do?: The Ends Justify the Meanness – A Pithy, Vicious Guide to Corporate Warfare and Power

“But if you’re serious about the path to enlightenment and lucrative stock options, go quietly with us in the noise and haste as we take a look at our lives and ask the one pertinent question for those who wish to conquer the twenty-first century: “What would Machiavelli do?” Answer? He would play to win.”
― Stanley Bing, What Would Machiavelli Do?: The Ends Justify the Meanness – A Pithy, Vicious Guide to Corporate Warfare and Power

“Throughout our time here on earth, we all have a choice. To do things the mediocre way . . . or Machiavelli’s way.”
― Stanley Bing, What Would Machiavelli Do?: The Ends Justify the Meanness – A Pithy, Vicious Guide to Corporate Warfare and Power