Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes

A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise.

A ruler must learn to be other than good.

Where princes are concerned, a man who is able to do good is as dangerous and almost as criminal as a man who intends to do evil.

(A ruler) cannot and should not keep his word when to do so would go against his interests or when the reason he pledged it no longer holds.

In order to achieve the most noble accomplishments, the leader may have to 'enter into evil.' This is the chilling insight that has made Machiavelli so feared, admired, and challenging. It is why we are drawn to him still.

Lies and promises are necessary but not sufficient.

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.

How laudable it is for a prince to keep good faith and live with integrity, and not with astuteness, every one knows. Still the experience of our times shows those princes to have done great things who have had little regard for good faith, and have been able by astuteness to confuse men's brains, and who have ultimately overcome those who have made loyalty their foundation.

not keeping a promise is the same as lying!

Divorced from ethics, leadership is reduced to management and politics to mere technique.

Let none of us delude himself by supposing that honesty is always the best policy. It is not.

I'm not a Saban guy, because I don't like liars, and I think he lied. I think he lied to the Miami Dolphins and to the fans of Miami, and he left. And it's pretty simple: I think integrity is very important; if you don't have integrity, I don't know how you can be successful.

Every leader has the responsibility to hone his or her integrity. Many times, there are integrity traps that have a tendency to catch well-meaning leaders off guard.

In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.

Washington could not tell a lie; Nixon could not tell the truth; Reagan cannot tell the difference.

The prince must not mind incurring the scandal of those vices without which it would be difficult to save the state.

… 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.

'Do other men, for they would do you.' That's the true business precept.

In statesmanship get the formalities right, never mind about the moralities.

I have been public on this, and I firmly, firmly believe that this notion of accountability for what you promise as a leader is as important as your integrity.

I cannot deceive my people.

Cheating is only cheating when you get caught.

As I have often said, electrons and gerbils don't cheat. People do.

If a President of the United States ever lied to the American people, he should resign.

Never trust a man who says he is only a little crooked, and that the crookedness is exercised in your interest.