Machiavelli quotes political

Niccolò Machiavelli (3 May1469 – 21 June1527) was an Italian political philosopher, historian, musician, poet, and romantic comedic playwright. Machiavelli was also a key figure in realist political theory, crucial to European statecraft during the Renaissance.

See also: The Prince

Quotes

• When evening comes, I return home and enter my study; on the threshold I take off my workday clothes, covered with mud and dirt, and put on the garments of court and palace. Fitted out appropriately, I step inside the venerable courts of the ancients, where, solicitously received by them, I nourish myself on that food that alone is mine and for which I was born; where I am unashamed to converse with them and to question them about the motives for their actions, and they, out of their human kindness, answer me. And for four hours at a time I feel no boredom, I forget all my troubles, I do not dread poverty, and I am not terrified by death. I absorb myself into them completely.
  • Letter to Francesco Vettori (10 December 1513), as translated by James Atkinson, in Prince Machiavelli (1976), p. 19

• Now, in order to execute a political commission well, it is necessary to know the character of the prince and those who sway his counsels; ... but it is above all things necessary to make himself esteemed, which he will do if he so regulates his actions and conversation that he shall be thought a man of honour, liberal, and sincere. The latter point is highly essential, though too much neglected, as I have seen more than one so lose themselves in the opinion of princes by their duplicity, that they have been unable to conduct a negotiation of the most trifling importance. It is undoubtedly necessary for the ambassador occasionally to mask his game; but it should be done so as not to awaken suspicion and he ought also to be prepared with an answer in case of discovery.
  • "Instructions given by Niccolo Machiavelli to Rafael Gir

How important is Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince? I’d say that it’s not so important anymore. Anyone who’s half-aware of what’s going on in the world would find that Machiavelli is stating the obvious. In today’s world, the Machiavellian nature of politics is a given. We do not need to discover it; we know it from the start. There isn’t a man out there who believes politicians are honest folks just doing their job. They lie to us every day, and we know, but we believe them anyway. It’s how the world works.

So, in that respect, we can say that the contemporary man understands Machiavelli without even reading his work. In the past, people may have believed that there were honest princes or politicians, so The Prince could have shocked the readers of the past who could not even have guessed we’d have something called the internet one day. (In fact, 16th, 17th, and 18th-century readers were so disturbed that they believed Machiavelli was inspired by the devil.) In the 21st century, however, The Prince has become literature for the necrophiles. It is still readable, of course. But more than half a millennium has passed since Machiavelli’s death, and if one’s goal is to conquer the world, he’ll find books like Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power much more useful to him than merely The Prince.

Nonetheless, since I have revisited the book anyway, I’ll save some of the sentences I have underlined here and make a blog post out of it. Enjoy the quotes!

Quotes from Machiavelli’s The Prince

“It is in the nature of things that as soon as a powerful foreigner enters a province, all the weaker powers in it will become his allies through envy of those who have been ruling over them.”

“A prince must have no other objective, no other thought, nor take up any profession but that of war.”

“He who causes another to become powerful ruins himself.”