Quotes About Leadership

In this way you have enemies in all those whom you have injured in seizing that principality, and you are not able to keep those friends who put you there because of your not being able to satisfy them in the way they expected, and you cannot take strong measures against them, feeling bound to them.

offence, since you show your subjects that you distrust them, either as doubting their courage, or as doubting their fidelity, each of which imputations begets hatred against you.

He who has annexed them, if he wishes to hold them, has only to bear in mind two considerations: the one, that the family of their former lord is extinguished; the other, that neither their laws nor their taxes are altered, so that in a very short time they will become entirely one body with the old principality.

But when states are acquired in a country differing in language, customs, or laws, there are difficulties, and good fortune and great energy are needed to hold them, and one of the greatest and most real helps would be that he who has acquired them should go and reside there.

He has only to take care that they do not get hold of too much power and too much authority, and then with his own forces, and with their goodwill, he can easily keep down the more powerful of them, so as to remain entirely master in the country.

for men change their rulers willingly, hoping to better themselves, and this hope induces them to take up arms against him who rules: wherein they are deceived, because they afterwards find by experience they have gone from bad to worse.

moral that it is far better to earn the confidence of the people than to rely on fortresses.

Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.

a prince, so long as he keeps his subjects united and loyal, ought not to mind the reproach of cruelty; because with a few examples he will be more merciful than those who, through too much mercy, allow disorders to arise, from which follow murders or robberies; for these are wont to injure the whole people, whilst those executions which originate with a prince offend the individual only.

It is necessary', he writes, for a prince to learn 'how not to be good' (Ch. XV). Machiavelli's wording on this matter is extremely precise: a man who wants 'to profess goodness at all times' will inevitably fail because he is surrounded by many unscrupulous men. Hence, 'it is necessary for a prince who wishes to maintain himself to learn how not to be good, and to use this knowledge or not to use it according to necessity' (Ch. XV).

Ak?ll? hükümdar, yurttaÅŸlar?n? her zaman ve her durumda kendisine muhtaç b?rakmal?d?r. Onlar?n sürekli baÄŸl?l???n? saÄŸlayacak tek yol budur.

cannot be called talent to slay fellow-citizens, to deceive friends, to be without faith, without mercy, without religion; such methods may gain empire, but not glory.

He [the prince] holds to what is right when he can but knows how to do wrong when he must.

Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, because it belongs to everybody to see you, to few to come in touch with you. 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; and in the actions of all men, and especially of princes, which it is not prudent to challenge, one judges by the result.

Porque así como aquellos que dibujan se colocan abajo, en el llano, para considerar la naturaleza de los montes y de los lugares elevados y, para considerar la de los bajos, se colocan en lo alto, sobre los montes, igualmente para conocer bien la naturaleza de los pueblos, es necesario ser príncipe, y para conocer bien la de los príncipes, es necesario ser del pueblo.

And again, he need not make himself uneasy at incurring a reproach for those vices without which the state can only be saved with difficulty, for if everything is considered carefully, it will be found that something which looks like virtue, if followed, would be his ruin; whilst something else, which looks like vice, yet followed brings him security and prosperity.

Guerra não se evita, mas se adia em favor de outrem.

Un hombre prudente debe discurrir siempre por las vías trazadas por los grandes hombres e imitar a aquellos que han sobresalido extraordinariamente por encima de los demás, con el fin de que, aunque no se alcance su virtud, algo nos quede, sin embargo, de su aroma.

comedic playwright.

can satisfy the people, for their object is more righteous than that of the nobles, the latter wishing to oppress, while the former only desire not to be oppressed.

Her zaman iyi olmaya çal??an biri, iyi olmayan çok say?da insan?n aras?nda bir y?k?nt? olmaya mahkumdur.

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.

men ought ever to desire to be served by one who has reaped experience at the expense of others.

Li quali modi possono fare acquistare imperio, ma non gloria.