Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes

What I'd really like to control is not machines, but people.

We are ruled by public opinion, not by statute law.

The first instinct of the modern man is to get a law passed to forbid or prevent what, in his wisdom, he disapproves.

Fear God, and offend not the Prince nor his laws, And keep thyself out of the magistrate's claws.

Those who fear men like laws.

Laws that do not embody public opinion can never be enforced.

religion and morality are a much better whip to keep people in submission than even the club and the gun.

There should be a law to the People besides its own will.

They obeyed, as wise men do when a woman puts her foot down . . .

The more credible you are, the more confidence people place in you, thereby allowing you the privilege of influencing their lives.

How do you prevent people from doing inappropriate things? We can write laws. But at the end of the day, I actually wonder what the board was doing.

Force rules the world-not opinion; but it is opinion that makes use of force.

We know that the great majority of people have a strong need for authority which it can admire, to which it can submit, and which dominates and sometimes even ill-treats it.

How dare politicians continue to pass insane laws forcing good, law-abiding people to be defenseless and helpless.

But remember, this power of the people on top depends on the obedience of the people below. When people stop obeying, they have no power.

Beware the People weeping When they bare the iron hand.

Since outright slavery has been discredited, "democracy" is the only remaining rationale for state compulsion that most people will accept.

What is the cause of historical events? Power. What is power? Power is the sum total of wills transferred to one person. On what condition are the willso fo the masses transferred to one person? On condition that the person express the will of the whole people. That is, power is power. That is, power is a word the meaning of which we do not understand.

One day old Thrashbarg said that Almighty Bob had declared that he, Thrashbarg, was to have first pick of the sandwiches. The villagers asked him when this had happened, exactly, and Thrashbarg said it had happened yesterday, when they weren't looking. 'Have faith,' Old Thrashbarg said, 'or burn!' They let him have first pick of the sandwiches. It seemed easiest.

The single definition of government I've ever seen that makes sense is that it's the organization which claims the right to kill people who won't do what it wants.

It is dangerous to tell the people that the laws are unjust; for they obey them only because they think them just. Therefore it isnecessary to tell them at the same time that they must obey them because they are laws, just as they must obey superiors, not because they are just, but because they are superiors. In this way all sedition is prevented.

Must be a yearning deep in human heart to stop other people from doing as they please. Rules, laws - always for other fellow. A murky part of us, something we had before we came down out of trees, and failed to shuck when we stood up.

Power-over is resorted to time without number because people will not wait for the slower process of education.

It's true that most people find it far more comfortable to trust an authority than to have their faith questioned.

I may command where I adore.