Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes

The answer is, of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved.

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.

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.

You can't be loved for long if you're not feared.

I would rather you love me, but if not love, fear will do.

Politics is the art of dominating men.

People with real power never fear of losing it. People with control think of little else.

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.

I can frighten or buy ninety-nine out of every one hundred men.

In order to obtain and hold power, a man must love it.

The people can be forced to fear, but not to love.

In the 16th century, [Niccolò] Machiavelli - in an attempt to get back in the good graces of the powerful - wrote a slim volume called The Prince. In that book he showed the powers that be how to control the people. That book is a statement: separate and rule, divide and conquer. That's five hundred years ago and it still works, because we allow ourselves to be lead around with holes through our noses.

I am a collaborator with everyone who agrees that I need to be in control. I happily collaborate with my loyalists.

It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved.

The thing about Republicans is that they don't care so much about respect, but they love fear, at least in others.

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.

In conspiracies, men who know what they wanted commonly ended by controlling the men who did not.

What is politics, after all, but the compulsion to preside over property and make other people's decisions for them?

The tyrant is always stirring up some war or another, in order that the people may require a leader.

The people always have some champion who they set over them and nurse into greatness …. This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears, he is a protector.

If you've got 'em by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.

Politics is power, and communications is power,

Trump manipulates the fearful by promising that he will use his fraudulent deal-making prowess to protect and take care of his supporters.

The fear tactic is a tactic that's used by people who want to maintain control, and it's very effective.

Men are more ready to offend one who desires to be beloved than one who wishes to be feared.