Top 250 Niccolò Machiavelli Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “The prince must be a lion, but he must also know how to play the fox.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

102. “For, besides what has been said, it should be borne in mind that the temper of the multitude is fickle, and that while it is easy to persuade them of a thing, it is hard to fix them in that persuasion.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

103. “All the States and Governments by which men are or ever have been ruled, have been and are either Republics or Princedoms.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

104. “Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

105. “One should never fall in the belief that you can find someone to pick you up.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

106. “It is better to be adventurous than cautious, because fortune is a woman.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

107. “I hold strongly to this: that it is better to be impetuous than circumspect; because fortune is a woman and if she is to be submissive it is necessary to beat and coerce her.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

108. “The princes who have done great things are the ones who have taken little account of their promises.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

109. “Good order and discipline in any army are to be depended upon more than courage alone.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

110. “Tardiness often robs us opportunity, and the dispatch of our forces.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

111. “A battle that you win cancels all your mistakes.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

112. “A government which does not trust its citizens to be armed is not itself to be trusted.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

113. “Gold will not always get you good soldiers, but good soldiers can get you gold.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

114. “The best fortress which a prince can possess is the affection of his people.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

115. “Nature creates few men brave, industry and training makes many.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

116. “Nothing is of greater importance in time of war than in knowing how to make the best use of a fair opportunity when it is offered.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

117. “There should be many judges, for few will always do the will of few.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

118. “Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

119. “Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

120. “Any harm you do to a man should be done in such a way that you need not fear his revenge.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

121. “Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

122. “One arises from a low to a high station more often by using fraud instead of force.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

123. “Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

124. “Cruelties should be committed all at once.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

125. “A wise man will see to it that his acts always seem voluntary and not done by compulsion, however much he may be compelled by necessity.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

126. “How perilous it is to free a people who prefer slavery.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

127. “He who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

128. “God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

129. “The peasant wants only to be left alone to prosper in peace.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

130. “When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

131. “A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

132. “In war, discipline can do more than fury.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

133. “It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

134. “Ability and perseverance are the weapons of weakness.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

135. “Anyone who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it may expect to be destroyed by it; for such a city may always justify rebellion in the name of liberty and its ancient institutions.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

136. “One should never allow chaos to develop in order to avoid going to war, because one does not avoid a war but instead puts it off to his disadvantage.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

137. “For, in truth, there is no sure way of holding other than by destroying.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

138. “Because there are three classes of intellects: one which comprehends by itself; another which appreciates what others comprehend; and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others; the first is the most excellent, the second is good, the third is useless.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

139. “Fear is secured by a dread of punishment.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

140. “I hold it to be a proof of great prudence for men to abstain from threats and insulting words toward anyone, for neither diminishes the strength of the enemy.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

141. “Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are, and those few dare not oppose themselves to the opinion of the many, who have the majesty of the state to defend them.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

142. “Therefore, it is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares and a lion to terrify the wolves.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

143. “Men ought either to be well treated, or crushed.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

144. “When neither their property nor their honor is touched, the majority of men live content.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

145. “If the present be compared with the remote past, it is easily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

146. “Men sooner forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

147. “Severities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offense; benefits ought to be handed ought drop by drop, so that they may be relished the more.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

148. “Women are the most charitable creatures, and the most troublesome. He who shuns women passes up the trouble, but also the benefits. He who puts up with them gains the benefits, but also the trouble. As the saying goes, there’s no honey without bees.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

149. “God creates men, but they choose each other.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

150. “He who has not first laid his foundations may be able with great ability to lay them afterwards, but they will be laid with trouble to the architect and danger to the building.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli