Top 100 Quotes About Machiavelli
#1. It's not like I idolize this one guy Machiavelli. I idolize that type of thinking where you do whatever's gonna make you achieve your goal.
Tupac Shakur
#2. When one would ask most modern artists, poets, writers and other status quo fueled semi-intellectuals who Machiavelli was - was that an opera singer?
Martijn Benders
#3. I worry that when you start quoting Machiavelli to justify your actions, you have ceased to be one of the good guys.
No, quoting Nietzsche does that. Machiavelli is just cool.
Laurell K. Hamilton
#4. 'The Prince' was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. 'Rules for Radicals' is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.
Saul Alinsky
#5. There's no getting away from the fact that, if ever a man required watching, it's Steggles. Machiavelli could have taken his correspondence course.
P.G. Wodehouse
#6. Better and happier those who, recognizing that everything is fictitious, write the novel before someone writes it for them and, like Machiavelli, don courtly garments to write in secret.
Fernando Pessoa
#7. Stupidity trumps Machiavelli almost every time when you are looking for an explanation.
Robert Foster Bennett
#8. Machiavelli is not an evil genius, nor a demon, nor a miserable and cowardly writer; he is nothing but the fact. And he is not only the Italian fact; he is the European fact, the fact of the sixteenth century. He seems hideous, and so he is, in the presence of the moral idea of the nineteenth.
Victor Hugo
#9. Like Machiavelli himself, he [Edward Luttwak] enjoys truth not only because it is true but also because it shocks the naive
Eric Hobsbawm
#10. This modern interpretation of Machiavelli's landmark work is perhaps more useful for the modern reader than the original text. His dense ideas have been boiled down to their essence and presented in language that can be easily grasped by the modern mind.
Brandon Musk
#11. Simon called you 'Machiavelli disguised as a debutante.'" "Gosh," I said, not sure whether to feel flattered or insulted.
Michelle Cooper
#12. Half of these aren't even Machiavelli.
Some are Plato, Thucydides etc ... doesnt anyone check these?
Niccolo Machiavelli
#13. Kautilya makes Machiavelli look like Mother Teresa
Wendy Doniger
#14. A man of nothing who has started out from nothing starting out from an unassignable place: these are, for Machiavelli, the conditions for regeneration.
Louis Althusser
#15. Machiavelli, however, took his bearings from people as they are. He defined the political project as making the best of this flawed material. He knew (in words Kant would write almost three centuries later) that nothing straight would be made from the crooked timber of humanity.
George Will
#16. Europeans are forever the offspring of Machiavelli, trapped in a historical rollercoaster that can bring us a monarchy-toppling French Revolution and then a few years later Napoleon Bonaparte as emperor.
Loretta Napoleoni
#17. We are all bits and pieces of history and literature and international law, Byron, Tom Paine, Machiavelli or Christ, it's here. And the hour's late. And the war's begun. And we are out here, and the city is there, all wrapped up in its own coat of a thousand colors.
Ray Bradbury
#18. It is better to be feared than loved. - MACHIAVELLI
Kate Quinn
#19. I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.
Salman Rushdie
#20. No matter how different our First Ladies have been - and as individual women they have ranged from recluses to vibrant hostesses to political manipulators on a par with Machiavelli - they have all shared the unnerving experience of facing a job they did not choose.
Margaret Truman Daniel
#21. Have you any idea how to wake a hibernating Elder?"
Machiavelli shook his head.
"Mars, what about you? Any advice?"
"Yes. Don't.
Michael Scott
#22. Machiavelli himself famously put it: "All armed prophets have conquered, and unarmed prophets have come to grief."9
Lesley Hazleton
#23. I thought there was no use for me in reading Sun Tzu and Machiavelli because I am neither a warrior nor a politician, but it turned out to be useful when I married
Bangambiki Habyarimana
#24. Machiavelli had some cold tricks for people who wanted to be demagogues and wanted to take over the world.
Mads Mikkelsen
#25. Machiavelli is the complete contrary of a machiavellian, since he describes the tricks of power and gives the whole show away. The seducer and the politician, who live in the dialectic and have a feeling and instinct for it, try their best to keep it hidden.
Maurice Merleau Ponty
#26. In republics there is more life, more hatred, more desire for revenge. - MACHIAVELLI, The Prince, chapter five
Christopher Celenza
#27. Machiavelli taught me it was better to be feared than loved. Because if you are loved they sense you might be weak. I am a man of the people and help them but it is important to do so through strength.
Don King
#28. I'm Machiavelli's offspring, I'm the king of New York, king of the coast, one hand, I juggle them both.
Kendrick Lamar
#29. The promise given was necessity of the past: the word borken is a necessity of the present -Niccolo Machiavelli
Michael Scott
#30. So what? Somebody's always had control over information, and others have always tried to steal it. Read Machiavelli. As technology changes, sneakiness finds new expressions." Martha
Clifford Stoll
#31. Machiavelli is right: one always must live with one's friends with the idea that they may turn into one's enemies. He should have said, with everyone.
Napoleon Bonaparte
#32. When the last of the Reformers died, religion, instead of emancipating the nations, had become an excuse for the criminal art of despots. Calvin preached, and Bellarmine lectured; but Machiavelli reigned.
Lord Acton
#33. It is in reference to Pope Julius that Machiavelli moralizes on the resemblance between Fortune and women, and concludes that it is the bold rather than the cautious man that will win and hold them both.
W.K. Marriott
#34. Don't be creative. Don't be stupid."
"That's what Machiavelli said. You guys really have a lot of faith in me, don't you?"
"Neither one of us wants to lose you. Just be careful, Billy. Careful is my middle name."
Black Hawk rolled his eyes. "You told me it was Henry.
Michael Scott
#35. The Machiavelli of the 20th century will be an advertising man, his Prince, a textbook of the art and science of fooling all the people all the time.
Aldous Huxley
#36. Long before Einstein told us that matter is energy, Machiavelli and Hobbes and other modern political philosophers defined man as a lump of matter whose most politically relevant attribute is a form of energy called self-interestedness. This was not a
George Will
#37. Prudent men are wont to say
and this not rashly or without good ground
that he who would foresee what has to be should reflect on what has been, for everything that happens in the world at any time has genuine resemblance to what happened in ancient times.
Machiavelli
Niccolo Machiavelli
#38. Power politics existed before Machiavelli was ever heard of; it will exist long after his name is only a faint memory. What he did, like Harvey, was to recognize its existence and subject it to scientific study.
Max Lerner
#39. But like Machiavelli tells us, you must use the assets and resources at your disposal. Use them all, and use them to maximum effect.
Austin Scott Collins
#40. It's foolish to call Chanakya an Indian Machiavelli. Rather, Machiavelli was possibly an Italian Chanakya.
Ashwin Sanghi
#41. What this White House really needs is a chief of staff who can read Machiavelli in the original Italian.
Mack McLarty
#42. Watching you try to be a smooth manipulator is like watching a moose do ballet. What did you do, read Machiavelli for Dummies? Or
Elliott James
#43. In the United States today, the Declaration of Independence hangs on schoolroom walls, but foreign policy follows Machiavelli.
Howard Zinn
#44. Laa shay'a waqi'un moutlaq bale kouloun moumkine' -the Wisdom of our Creed is revealed through these words - 'We work in the Dark, to serve the Light. We are Assassins.'
Machiavelli
Oliver Bowden
#45. If you want to compete in Italy, the only accepted ways are brute force, or cunning. Like Machiavelli says, "Fronte otra forze." And neither of these two "virtues" is suited to an artist. The artist has to stay intelligent.
Francesco Clemente
#46. It's better to be loved than feared, but if you can't be loved, then fear will do.-Dino quoting Machiavelli
Laurell K. Hamilton
#47. Food critic and writer Waverley Root described the common American near beer as "such a wishy-washy, thin, ill-tasting, discouraging sort of slop that it might have been dreamed up by a Puritan Machiavelli with the intent of disgusting drinkers with genuine beer forever."[21]
Waverly Root
#48. Christopher Lynch has made the best and the first careful translation of Machiavelli's Art of War. With useful notes, an excellent introduction, an interpretive essay, glossary, and index, it is a treasure for readers of military history and Renaissance thought as well as for lovers of Machiavelli.
Harvey Mansfield
#49. No wonder Gran had managed to run a brewery with such success for the past twenty-two years. She was a Machiavelli in skirts.
Sabrina Jeffries
#50. Machiavelli believed it was better to be feared than loved, because attachment is easily severed, but the terror of pain is ever present.
J.M. Darhower
#51. Machiavelli did believe that it was better to appear to be good than to be good. If you're good, you're just too vulnerable, but if you appear to be good, you get all the benefits plus you can be sneaky and, when necessary, stab someone in the back.
David Ignatius
#52. All ideas advanced to deal with the Florentine noise problem, the Florentine traffic problem, are Utopian, and nobody believes in them, just as nobody believed in Machiavelli's Prince, a Utopian image of the ideally self-interested despot.
Mary McCarthy
#53. These books ain't window dressing. I think Machiavelli's the most sophisticated writer outside of Shakespeare. Way ahead of his time. Such a manipulative person. Everything he accomplished he did by kissin' ass.
Mike Tyson
#54. C++ tries to guard against Murphy, not Machiavelli.
Damian Conway
#55. Machiavelli's teaching would hardly have stood the test of Parliamentary government, for public discussion demands at least the profession of good faith.
Lord Acton
#56. Jefferson appeared to his enemies as an American version of Candide; Hamilton as an American Machiavelli.
Joseph J. Ellis
#57. the wily Machiavelli had always believed that any clod could have the facts - having an opinion was an art.
Ashwin Sanghi
#58. The political tradition of ancient thought, filtered in Italy by Machiavelli, says one thing clearly: every prince needs allies, and the bigger the responsibility, the more allies he needs.
Silvio Berlusconi
#59. Prime ministers require the hide of a rhinoceros, the morals of St. Francis, the patience of Job, the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the leadership of Napoleon, the magnetism of a Beatle and the subtlety of Machiavelli.
Lester B. Pearson
#60. I could recite you the whole of Thucydides, Xenophon, Plutarch, Titus Livius, Tacitus, Strada, Jornandes, Dante, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Spinoza, Machiavelli, and Bossuet. I name only the most important." "You
Alexandre Dumas
#61. In order to achieve the most noble accomplishments, the leader may have to 'enter into evil.' This is the chilling insight that has made Machiavelli so feared, admired, and challenging. It is why we are drawn to him still ...
Michael A. Ledeen
#62. What's distinctively shocking about Machiavelli is that he didn't care. He believed not only that politicians must do evil in the name of the public good, but also that they shouldn't worry about it. He was unconcerned, in other words, with what modern thinkers call 'the problem of dirty hands.'
Michael Ignatieff
#63. Between being loved and being feared, I have always believed Machiavelli was right. If nobody is afraid of me, I'm meaningless.
Lee Kuan Yew
#64. Machiavelli observed that 'wars begin when you will, but do not end when you please'.
Max Hastings
#65. Without doubt, ferocious and disordered men are much weaker than timid and ordered ones. For order chases fear from men and disorder lessens ferocity.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#66. Nothing consumes itself so much as generosity, because while you practise it you're losing the wherewithal to go on practising it.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#67. I say, then, that hereditary States, accustomed to the family of their Prince, are maintained with far less difficulty than new States, since all that is required is that the Prince shall not depart from the usages of his ancestors, trusting for the rest to deal with events as they arise.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#69. For love is held by the tie of obligation, which, because men are a sorry breed, is broken on every whisper of private interest; but fear is bound by the apprehension of punishment which never relaxes its grasp.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#70. As a general thing anyone who is not your friend will advise neutrality while anyone who is your friend will ask you to join him, weapon in hand.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#71. Men are able to assist fortune but not to thwart her. They can weave her designs, but they cannot destroy them.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#72. Benefits should be conferred gradually; and in that way they will taste better.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#73. If in other respects the old condition of things be continued, and there be no discordance in their customs, men live peaceably with one another ...
Niccolo Machiavelli
#74. (A ruler) cannot and should not keep his word when to do so would go against his interests or when the reason he pledged it no longer holds.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#75. Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good. Hence a prince who wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good, and use that knowledge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#76. 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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#78. There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#80. Men are more apt to be mistaken in their generalizations than in their particular observations.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#81. When you disarm your subjects, however, 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.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#82. The state is not an organism capable of bringing either moral or material improvements to the populace ... but merely a vehicle of power for the men and party in power.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#84. Princes should devolve on others those matters that entail responsibility, and reserve to themselves those that relate to grace and favour.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#85. The wish to acquire is no doubt a natural and common sentiment, and when men attempt things within their power, they will always be praised rather than blamed. But when they persist in attempts that are beyond their power, mishaps and blame ensue.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#86. And the prince who has relied solely on their words, without making other preparations, is ruined, for the friendship which is gained by purchase and not through grandeur and nobility of spirit is merited but is not secured, and at times is not to be had.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#88. Anyone who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it may expect to be destroyed by it; for such a city may always justify rebellion in the name of liberty and its ancient institutions.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#90. Master the rules of the game until you can play it better they can.
Michael Scott
#91. (About Cesare Borgia) What cruelties were not the result of his? Who could count all his crimes? Such was the man that Machiavel prefers to all the great geniuses of his time, and to the heroes of antiquity, and of which he finds the life and action make a good example for those that fortune favors.
Frederick The Great
#93. Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#94. Wisdom consists of knowing how to distinguish the nature of trouble, and in choosing the lesser evil.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#95. A man who wishes to profess at all times will come to ruin among so many who are not good.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#97. People are by nature fickle, and it is easy to persuade them of something, but difficult to keep them persuaded.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#98. Men are so self-complacent in their own affairs, and so willing to deceive themselves, that they are rescued with difficulty from this pest. If they wish to defend themselves they run the risk of becoming contemptible.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#99. Hence it comes that all armed prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed prophets have been destroyed.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#100. When men receive favours from someone they expected to do them ill, they are under a greater obligation to their benefactor ...
Niccolo Machiavelli
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