Never do any enemy a small injury for they are like a snake which is half beaten and it will strike back the first chance it gets.
~ Niccolò Machiavelli
:::
Never do any enemy a small injury for they are like a snake which is half beaten and it will strike back the first chance it gets.
~ Niccolò Machiavelli
:::
It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.
~ Niccolò Machiavelli
:::
A prudent man should always follow in the path trodden by great men and imitate those who are most excellent.
~ Niccolò Machiavelli
:::
It is the nature of men to be bound by the benefits they confer as much as by those they receive.
~ Niccolò Machiavelli
:::
The prince who relies upon their words, without having otherwise provided for his security, is ruined; for friendships that are won by awards, and not by greatness and nobility of soul, although deserved, yet are not real, and cannot be depended upon in time of adversity.
~ Niccolò Machiavelli
:::
The Romans never allowed a trouble spot to remain simply to avoid going to war over it, because they knew that wars don’t just go away, they are only postponed to someone else’s advantage.
~ Niccolò Machiavelli
:::
From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved more than feared, or feared more than loved. 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.
~ Niccolò Machiavelli
:::
In judging policies we should consider the results that have been achieved through them rather than the means by which they have been executed.
~ Niccolò Machiavelli
:::