Quotes from The Prince

“Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“it is much safer to be feared than loved because ...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“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, quote from The Prince

“Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great. ”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“Men in general judge more by the sense of sight than by the sense of touch, because everyone can see but few can test by feeling. Everyone sees what you seem to be, few know what you really are; and those few do not dare take a stand against the general opinion.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“How we live is so different from how we ought to live that he who studies what ought to be done rather than what is done will learn the way to his downfall rather than to his preservation.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“…he who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“The vulgar crowd always is taken by appearances, and the world consists chiefly of the vulgar.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“A man who is used to acting in one way never changes; he must come to ruin when the times, in changing, no longer are in harmony with his ways.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“And here comes in the question whether it is better to be loved rather than feared, or feared rather than loved. It might perhaps be answered that we should wish to be both; but since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“A prudent man should always follow in the path trodden by great men and imitate those who are most excellent, so that if he does not attain to their greatness, at any rate he will get some tinge of it.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“Wisdom consists of knowing how to distinguish the nature of trouble, and in choosing the lesser evil.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good. Hence a prince who wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good, and use that knowledge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“Therefore, it is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares and a lion to terrify the wolves”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“Men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“He who becomes a Prince through the favour of the people should always keep on good terms with them; which it is easy for him to do, since all they ask is not to be oppressed”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“In conclusion, the arms of others either fall from your back, or they weigh you down, or they bind you fast.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel. Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“لا شيء أشد ضروره من أن يتظاهر الامير بالتدين ، فالناس عامة يحكمون بما يرون بأعينهم أكثر مما يحكمون بما يلمسون بإيديهم ، لأن كل امريء يستطيع أن يري ولكن قلة قليله تملك ان تلمس ما انت عليه.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

“A prince must not have any other object nor any other thought… but war, its institutions, and its discipline; because that is the only art befitting one who commands.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, quote from The Prince

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Popular quotes

“I might have taken a little more time, I might have allowed myself a longer goodbye.. soaking up every little detail until the memory was firmly lodged in my mind forever. But that's not how it works is it? And maybe it's better that way. Because some things are never meant to be anything more than a moment. And that was one of them." -Cait”
― Kevin Brooks, quote from Lucas

“Of course you would protect the woman,” he said. “You protect everyone, John—I don’t suppose you can help it.”
Astonished, Grey opened his mouth to contest this absurd statement, but was forestalled when Percy leaned forward and kissed him softly.
“You are the bravest man I know,” Percy said, his breath warm on Grey’s cheek. “And you will not convince me otherwise.”
― Diana Gabaldon, quote from Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade

“মতকে মত দিয়ে যুক্তিকে যুক্তি দিয়ে বাঁধা দেয়া চলে , কিন্তু বুদ্ধির বিষয়কে ক্রোধ দিয়ে দণ্ড দেয়া বর্বরতা ।”
― Rabindranath Tagore, quote from Gora

“It got to the point where he didn’t even look up at the sky any more as he blundered back and forth. The human mind had evolved for just one universe, he thought. How much of this crap was he supposed to take? He felt exhausted, resentful, bewildered. “Wait.” He paused. He had loped out of the portal onto another stretch of scuffed, anonymous regolith. She was lying in his arms, her weight barely registering. He looked down into her face, and pushed up her gold sun visor. “Emma?” She licked her lips. “Look. Up there.” No Galaxy visible, but a starry sky. The stars looked, well, normal. But he’d learned that meant little. “So what?” Emma was lifting her arm, pointing. He saw three stars, dull white points, in a row. And there was a rough rectangle of stars around them—one of them a distinctive red—and what looked like a Galaxy disc, or maybe just a nebula, beneath … “Holy shit,” he said. She whispered, “There must be lots of universes like ours. But, surely to God, there is only one Orion.” And then light, dazzling, unbearably brilliant, came stabbing over the close horizon. It was a sunrise. He could actually feel its heat through the layers of his suit.

He looked down at the ground at his feet. The rising light cast strong shadows, sharply illuminating the miniature crevices and craters there. And here was a “crater” that was elongated, and neatly ribbed. It was a footprint. He stepped forward, lifted his foot, and set it down in the print. It fit neatly. When he lifted his foot away the cleats of his boot hadn’t so much as disturbed a regolith grain. It was his own footprint. Good grief. After hundreds of universes of silence and remoteness and darkness, universes of dim light and shadows, he was right back where he started.”
― Stephen Baxter, quote from Manifold: Time

“He looked like he wanted to say something but his jaw tensed and
instead he let his hand travel from my elbow to my hand, the strong pulse from his fingers like a balm to my injured soul. I raised our entwined hands
and placed them over the steady thumping of his heart a twin of the rhythm in my own chest. I pressed my head to his chest letting the steady pace
of his heart and his citrusy, musky scent envelop me, lull me into a place of security. A place safe enough that I didn’t have to pretend I was okay. I
failed to sniff back the tears that began to leak from me.”
― Lani Woodland, quote from Intrinsical

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

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