Famous Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes Explained
Niccolo Machiavelli was an Italian Renaissance diplomat, historian, and political philosopher of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, often described as the founder of modern political science. <em>The Prince</em> (1513) and the <em>Discourses on Livy</em> (c. 1517) are Machiavelli's most-quoted works; he wrote both during forced retirement from Florentine politics. Below are eight of the most-circulated lines.
“It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.”
I say that every prince must desire to be considered merciful and not cruel. He must, however, take care not to misuse this mercifulness. ... A prince, therefore, must not mind incurring the charge of cruelty for the purpose of keeping his subjects united and confident; for, with a very few examples, he will be more merciful than those who, from excess of tenderness, allow disorders to arise, from
What it means
From The Prince, chapter 17. Machiavelli is treating the political emotions of subjects as resources to be managed: love is durable but voluntary and so unreliable in a crisis, while fear is involuntary and so more politically dependable. The recommendation is conditional — both is best — and the qualification is usually dropped when the line is quoted.
Attributed to Niccolo Machiavelli:
“Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.”
What it means
From the Discourses on Livy, Book III. Machiavelli's argument is that fortune (fortuna) shifts, but human dispositions tend to stay fixed; the politically successful actor is the rare one who can change his style to match the conditions instead of repeating yesterday's success.
Attributed to Niccolo Machiavelli:
“Men are so simple of mind, and so much dominated by their immediate needs, that a deceitful man will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived.”
What it means
From The Prince, chapter 18. Machiavelli is observing that deception is reliably effective because the population looking for relief from immediate pressure does not interrogate the source of the relief; a deceiver who promises a quick remedy will reliably find a constituency.
Attributed to Niccolo Machiavelli:
“There is no other way of guarding oneself against flattery than by letting men understand that to tell you the truth does not offend you.”
What it means
From The Prince, chapter 23. Machiavelli's prescription against flattery is institutional: cultivate advisers who are free to disagree, then accept their candour without retaliation. The solution presupposes a ruler secure enough to hear criticism.
“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”
A variant translation of: "And the first opinion which one forms of a prince, and of his understanding, is by observing the men he has around him." - The Prince (1513), Ch. 22
What it means
From The Prince, chapter 22. Machiavelli treats the quality of advisers as a downstream signal of the prince's own judgement: a ruler who surrounds himself with competent counsel demonstrates the discernment that makes him worth advising in the first place.
Attributed to Niccolo Machiavelli:
“Where the very safety of the country depends upon the resolution to be taken, no consideration of justice or injustice, humanity or cruelty, ought to prevail.”
What it means
From the Discourses, Book III. The line is Machiavelli's most explicit statement of raison d'état: when survival is at stake, the ordinary moral framework does not apply, because the framework itself depends on the survival of the political community. The reasoning has been claimed by both defenders and critics of the doctrine.
Attributed to Niccolo Machiavelli:
“Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.”
What it means
From The Prince, chapter 17. Machiavelli's anthropology is deliberately bleak in The Prince; in the Discourses he is more even-handed about human nature. The asymmetry is partly rhetorical: a prince who plans for the worst is rarely surprised, a prince who plans for the best often is.
“Upon this, one has to remark that 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.”
The Prince (1513), Ch. 3
What it means
From The Prince, chapter 3. The reasoning is consequentialist: a half-injured enemy retains both the will and the capacity for revenge, so half-measures are strategically worse than either reconciliation or destruction. The line is one of Machiavelli's most-frequently cited statements of political realism.