Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes

What is important in a leader is a resolute will and determination. A man may be versatile and learned, but if he lacks resoluteness and determination, of what use will he be?

Your strength lies in this, that you are not absolute but resolute.

One of the highest qualities of all true leadership is a high standard of courage. … There has never been time in the Church when its leaders were not required to be courageous men; not alone courageous in the sense that they were able to meet physical dangers, but also in the sense that they were steadfast and true to a clear and upright conviction.

A leader, once convinced that a particular course of action is the right one, must....be undaunted when the going gets tough.

Take courage and work on. Patience and steady work - this is the only way. Go on; remember - patience and purity and courage and steady work. . . . So long as you are pure, and true to your principles, you will never fail.

Fortitude. ... It means fixity of purpose. It means endurance. It means having the strength to live with what constrains you.

Just remember, strength and courage. If you stand on principle, you'll never lose.

Courage gives a leader the ability to stand straight and not sway, no matter which way the wind blows.

Be a man!... What good is religion if it collapses under calamity? Think of what earthquakes and floods, wars and volcanoes, have done before to men! Did you think that God had exempted [us]? He is not an insurance agent.

A stout heart, a clear conscience, and never despair.

Courage, ne'er by sorrow broken! Aid where tears of virtue flow; Faith to keep each promise spoken! Truth alike to friend and foe!

Woe betide him, and her too, when it comes to things of consequence, when they are placed in circumstances requiring fortitude and strength of mind, if she have not resolution enough to resist idle interference ... It is the worst evil of too yielding and indecisive a character, that no influence over it can be depended on. You are never sure of a good impression being durable; everybody may sway it. Let those who would be happy be firm.

Let us keep courage and try to be patient and gentle. And let us not mind being eccentric, and make distinction between good and evil.

The only saint is that soul that never weakens, faces everything, and determines to die game.

He who bravely endures evils, in time reaps the reward.

Any army which does not train to use all the weapons, all the means and methods of warfare that the enemy possesses, or may possess, is behaving in an unwise or even criminal manner. This applies to politics even more than it does to the art of war.

Once you have made up your mind, stick to it; there is no longer any 'if' or 'but'.

True character stands the test of emergencies. Do not be mistaken, it is weakness from which the awakening is rude.

I have often had occasion to remark the fortitude with which women sustain the most overwhelming reverses of fortunes.

Courage--judgment--integrity--dedication--these are the historic qualities of the Bay Colony and the Bay State....And these are the qualities which, with God's help, this son of Massachusetts hopes will characterize our government's conduct in the four stormy years that lie ahead.

Patience means self-suffering.

Greatness is never achieved through indecision.

You’ve got mountains of your own, I’ll bet on it. Take heart. Be encouraged. Remain steadfast. Hang on for dear life. You’ve got a better grip than you realize.

Fortitude implies a firmness and strength of mind, that enables us to do and suffer as we ought. It rises upon an opposition, and, like a river, swells the higher for having its course stopped.

The man who can face vilification and disgrace, who can stand up against the popular current, even against his friends and his country when he know he is right, who can defy those in authority over him, who can take punishment and prison and remain steadfast-that is a man of courage. The fellow whom you taunt as a 'slacker' because he refuses to turn murderer-he needs courage. But do you need much courage just to obey orders, to do as you are told and to fall in line with thousands of others to the tune of general approval and the Star Spangled Banner?