Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes

You cannot rely on other people's support.

I work hard and support myself.

It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.'

The great lesson that nature seems to teach us at all ages is self-dependence, self-protection, self-support. In the hours of our keenest sufferings all are thrown wholly on themselves for consolation.

Mama was a country woman with a whole lot of common sense. She understood what most of our neighbors didn't - that I shouldn't grow dependent on anyone except myself. 'One of these days, I ain't gonna be here,' she kept hammering inside my head.

I always knew that I would have to make it on my own somehow.

I know how to look after myself.

I never found anyone who could look after me as well as I could look after myself.

If you let other people do it for you, they will do it to you.

Do whatever you want to persevere, work for your own things, and do not depend on anyone to be your provider. That way, in the future, you will be all right regardless of the circumstances.

I'll always continue to work. I've never much depended on anyone but myself, as far as that goes.

You have to hold your bloody own or you're lost.

I don't want to be a burden on anybody.

If you always have a crutch, you don't learn anything.

I knew that if-God forbid-anything ever happened in my life, I needed to know how to take care of myself.

Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent.

Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.

Only trust thyself, and another shall not betray thee.

When you don't have anybody to take care of you, then you could go both ways: You could do whatever you want, or you could take charge and be your own parent.

The lesson that people can't give me what they don't have, and if there's anything I took from it, it was: okay, I don't really expect anyone to hand me anything. There's going to be me and the world.

No one can build his security upon the nobleness of another person.

A lot of people tell me a lot of things about my conduct, my game, my future... but I try to stay away from their words of wisdom. I don't let it distract me. On the field, you will be facing the ball alone. If you fail, you will the only one to blame. So, you should be the one deciding for yourself.

You cannot help people permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

I don't ever want to have to depend on anyone completely.

You've got a lot of very, very smart people standing by waiting for somebody else to do the work. Not a recipe for long-term solvency in my opinion.