The Prince

By Nicolo Machiavelli QUOTATION: There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.
ATTRIBUTION: Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527), Italian political philosopher, statesman. The Prince, ch. 22 (written 1513-1514, published 1532), trans. by George Bull (1961).

QUOTATION: The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms ... you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow.
ATTRIBUTION: Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527), Italian political philosopher, statesman. The Prince, ch. 12 (written 1513-1514, published 1532), trans. by George Bull (1961).

QUOTATION: The wish to acquire more is admittedly a very natural and common thing; and when men succeed in this they are always praised rather than condemned. But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes.
ATTRIBUTION: Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527), Italian political philosopher, statesman. The Prince, ch. 3 (1514).

QUOTATION: Many have dreamed up republics and principalities that have never in truth been known to exist; the gulf between how one should live and how one does live is so wide that that a man who neglects what is actually done for what should be done learns the way to self-destruction rather than self-preservation.
ATTRIBUTION: Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527), Italian political philosopher, statesman. The Prince, ch. 15 (1514).

QUOTATION: Men nearly always follow the tracks made by others and proceed in their affairs by imitation, even though they cannot entirely keep to the tracks of others or emulate the prowess of their models. So a prudent man should always follow in the footsteps of great men and imitate those who have been outstanding. If his own prowess fails to compare with theirs, at least it has an air of greatness about it. He should behave like those archers who, if they are skilful, when the target seems too distant, know the capabilities of their bow and aim a good deal higher than their objective, not in order to shoot so high but so that by aiming high they can reach the target.
ATTRIBUTION: Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527), Italian political philosopher, statesman. The Prince, ch. 6 (1514).

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