Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes

A prince... must learn from the fox and the lion... One must be a fox in order to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten off wolves. Those who act simply as lions are stupid. So it follows that a prudent ruler cannot, and must not, honour his word when it places him at a disadvantage and when the reasons for which he made his promise no longer exist.

Creative betrayal is the essence of successful statesmanship.

The princes who have done great things are the ones who have taken little account of their promises.

A real diplomat is one who can cut his neighbor's throat without having his neighbor notice it.

A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise.

To know how to dissimulate is the knowledge of kings.

To be honest, the fact that people trust you gives you a lot of power over people. Having another person's trust is more powerful than all other management techniques put together.

What this White House really needs is a chief of staff who can read Machiavelli in the original Italian.

Politics. The art of governing mankind by deceiving them.

The greatest virtue in a prince is to know his friends.

… he must deceive, misrepresent, leave false impressions … and trust to charm, loyalty and the result to make up for it…. A great man cannot be a good man.

… an Attila educated by Machiavelli

The practice of politics in the East may be defined by one word: dissimulation

Whoever said “Keep your enemies close” didn’t have many enemies.

The king is so subtle with his words that he would confound the apostolic religion itself. He will find the weak points of the pope's character and will trip him up to his destruction.

To act with doubleness towards a man whose own conduct was double, was so near an approach to virtue that it deserved to be called by no meaner name than diplomacy.

It is dangerous for a ruler to trust others. He who trusts others can be manipulated by others.

I don't employ Talleyrand when I want a thing done, but only when I want to have the appearance of wanting to do it.

We live under a prince who is an enemy to fraud, a prince whose eyes penetrate into the heart, and whom all the art of impostors can't deceive.

Yes, ruling by fooling, is a great British art with great Irish fools to practice on.

The Admiral's using us," he says to the kids around him. "Don't you see that?" Most of the kids just shrug, but Hayden's there, and he never misses an opportunity to add his peculiar wisdom to a situation. "I'd rather be used whole than in pieces," Hayden says.

By altering his arrangements and changing his plans, the skillful general keeps the enemy without definite knowledge. By shifting his camp and taking circuitous routes, he prevents the enemy from anticipating his purpose. At the critical moment, the leader of an army acts like one who has climbed up a height and then kicks away the ladder behind him.

The art of governing mankind by deceiving them.

Therefore it is unnecessary for a prince to have all the good qualities I have enumerated, but it is very necessary to appear to have them.

The reply is, that one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to be wanting. For it may be said of men in general that they are ungrateful, voluble, dissemblers, anxious to avoid danger, and covetous of gain; as long as you benefit them, they are entirely yours; they offer you their blood, their goods, their life, and their children, as I have before said, when the necessity is remote; but when it approaches, they revolt.