Francesco Guicciardini 1483 – 1540
Francesco Guicciardini was an Italian Renaissance historian, statesman, and political philosopher and one of the founding figures of modern historiography. After a long diplomatic and administrative career in the service of successive Medici popes and of the Florentine Republic, he wrote his monumental History of Italy, a sober and disenchanted record of the Italian wars from 1494 to 1534. His shorter Maxims, the Ricordi, gather a lifetime's worth of compressed political and moral observation in a style of skeptical realism that complements and often qualifies the more famous teachings of his friend Machiavelli.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Italian
- Era
- Modern
- Movements
- Renaissance, Political
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Francesco Guicciardini:
“Let no one trust so much in another's natural goodness as not to fortify himself with reason and prudence.”
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Attributed to Francesco Guicciardini:
“There is no rule that does not have its exception.”
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Attributed to Francesco Guicciardini:
“The world is so made that those who do not push are pushed.”
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Attributed to Francesco Guicciardini:
“Discretion in speaking is rarer than wisdom in thinking.”
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Attributed to Francesco Guicciardini:
“Whoever is content with little is rich; whoever is not, is poor though he have all.”