Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes

There are no techniques in politics.

Many have ruled well who could not perhaps define a Commonwealth.

Conquering the world on horseback is easy; it is dismounting and governing that is hard.

Whoso desireth to govern well and securely, it behoveth him to have a vigilant eye to the proceedings of great princes, and to consider seriously of their designs.

You always hear that politics is a function of timing and pacing.

I cannot fiddle, but I can make a great state from a little city.

It must be that to govern a nation you need a specific talent and that this may very well exist without general ability.

The ordinary affairs of a nation offer little difficulty to a person of any experience.

Writing laws is easy, but governing is difficult.

The liquor of statecraft is distilled from the mash you got.

In order to obtain and hold power, a man must love it.

Politics is not a science, as the professors are apt to suppose. It is an art.

The art of governing is a great metier, requiring the whole man, and it is therefore not well for a ruler to have too strong tendencies for other affairs.

Plato long ago pointed out the importance of being governed by men with sufficient sense of responsibility and comprehension of public duties to be very reluctant to undertake the work of governing.

The city?" Tyrion was lost. "What city would that be?" "King's Landing. I am sending you to court." It was the last thing Tyrion Lannister would ever have anticipated. He reached for his wine, considered for a moment as he sipped. "And what am I to do there?" "Rule," his father said curtly.

I swear to you, sitting a throne is a thousand times harder than winning one.

Jefferson refused to pin his hopes on the occasional success of honest and unambitious men; on the contrary, the great danger was that philosophers would be lulled into complacence by the accidental rise of a Franklin or a Washington. Any government which made the welfare of men depend on the character of their governors was an illusion.

Politics is not a science...but an art.

You know what kind of person it takes to run for President? Not normal. They could start out okay, but by the time they reach that level they've sold their soul to the devil so many times and stomped the guts out of enough people that they are definitely not like you and me, not even close.

Sarah Palin has managed to use her failed vice presidential run to put herself in a position of power and influence. Joe Biden won the race and he hasn't been able to put himself in a position of power and influence.

Want to accomplish something, any-damn-thing? Sharpen your political skills!

Politics is more difficult than physics.

He thinks like a philosopher, but governs like a king.

I wanna be a president for everyone in America. That's my goal, this what I will do, that's what I've done in my past.

Obtain power, then, by all means; power is the law of man; make it yours.