Machiavelli Quotes - The Prince Quotations

The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.
Niccolo Machiavelli

There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.
Niccolo Machiavelli

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.
Niccolo Machiavelli


The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Men are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer to be tricked.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Never was anything great achieved without danger.
Niccolo Machiavelli

No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.
Niccolo Machiavelli

A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise.
Niccolo Machiavelli

The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Tardiness often robs us opportunity, and the dispatch of our forces.
Niccolo Machiavelli

A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Before all else, be armed.
Niccolo Machiavelli

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.
Niccolo Machiavelli


I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.
Niccolo Machiavelli


It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved.
Niccolo Machiavelli

It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.
Niccolo Machiavelli

It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Hence it comes about that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.
Niccolo Machiavelli

To understand the nature of the people one must be a prince, and to understand the nature of the prince, one must be of the people.
Niccolo Machiavelli

War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.
Niccolo Machiavelli

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.
Niccolo Machiavelli

War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.
Niccolo Machiavelli


Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.
Niccolo Machiavelli


Benefits should be conferred gradually; and in that way they will taste better.
Niccolo Machiavelli


It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
Niccolo Machiavelli


Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.
Niccolo Machiavelli



The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.
Niccolo Machiavelli


A son can bear with equanimity the loss of his father, but the loss of his inheritance may drive him to despair.
Niccolo Machiavelli


Whoever conquers a free town and does not demolish it commits a great error and may expect to be ruined himself.
Niccolo Machiavelli

He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.
Niccolo Machiavelli

If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
Niccolo Machiavelli

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
Niccolo Machiavelli


The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.
Niccolo Machiavelli

One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Politics have no relation to morals.
Niccolo Machiavelli

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.
Niccolo Machiavelli

One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.
Niccolo Machiavelli

The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.
Niccolo Machiavelli

When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred.
Niccolo Machiavelli

The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.
Niccolo Machiavelli

God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us.
Niccolo Machiavelli

For among other evils caused by being disarmed, it renders you contemptible; which is one of those disgraceful things which a prince must guard against.
Niccolo Machiavelli

The one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not.
Niccolo Machiavelli

We cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.
Niccolo Machiavelli

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.
Niccolo Machiavelli

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.
Niccolo Machiavelli

There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Nelson Mandela Quotes

Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.

Nelson Mandela



Only free men can negotiate; prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.

Nelson Mandela



There is nothing like returning to a place that reminds unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.

Nelson Mandela



When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.

Nelson Mandela



Does anybody really think that they didn't get what they had because they didn't have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment?

Nelson Mandela



It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.

Nelson Mandela



Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.

Nelson Mandela



There is no such thing as part freedom.

Nelson Mandela



There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.

Nelson Mandela



I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

Nelson Mandela



A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

Nelson Mandela



After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.

Nelson Mandela



Communists have always played an active role in the fight by colonial countries for their freedom, because the short-term objects of Communism would always correspond with the long-term objects of freedom movements.

Nelson Mandela



It always seems impossible until its done.

Nelson Mandela



Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will.

Nelson Mandela



Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.

Nelson Mandela



Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

Nelson Mandela



For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

Nelson Mandela



In my country we go to prison first and then become President.

Nelson Mandela



There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.

Nelson Mandela



There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.

Nelson Mandela



There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

Nelson Mandela



We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.

Nelson Mandela



I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man.

Nelson Mandela



I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself.

Nelson Mandela



I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses.

Nelson Mandela



Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts.

Nelson Mandela



The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Nelson Mandela

Ernesto Che Guevara Quotes - Revolution Quotes

Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our arms.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



Where a government has come into power through some form of popular vote, fraudulent or not, and maintains at least an appearance of constitutional legality, the guerrilla outbreak cannot be promoted, since the possibilities of peaceful struggle have not yet been exhausted.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



The guerrilla fighter needs full help from the people of the area. This is an indispensable condition.

Why does the guerrilla fighter fight? We must come to the inevitable conclusion that the guerrilla fighter is a social reformer, that he takes up arms responding to the angry protest of the people against their oppressors, and that he fights in order to change the social system that keeps all his unarmed brothers in ignominy and misery.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



War is always a struggle in which each contender tries to annihilate the other. Besides using force, they will have recourse to all possible tricks and stratagems to achieve the goal.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



The life of a single human being is worth a million times more than all the property of the richest man on earth.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



Much more definitive and much more lasting than all the gold that one can accumulate is the gratitude of a people.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



Democracy is not compatible with financial oligarchy, with discrimination against Blacks and outrages by the Ku Klux Klan, or with the persecution that drove scientists like Oppenheimer from their posts, deprived the world for years of the marvelous voice of Paul Robeson, held prisoner in his own country, and sent the Rosenberg's to their deaths against the protests of a shocked world, including the appeals of many governments and of Pope Pius XII.

Democracy cannot consist solely of elections that are nearly always fictitious and managed by rich landowners and professional politicians.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



Justice remains the tool of a few powerful interests; legal interpretations will continue to be made to suit the convenience of the oppressor powers.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



There are no borders in this struggle to the death.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara





Planning is one of the laws of socialism, and without it, socialism would not exist.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



The struggle against imperialism, for liberation from colonial or neocolonial shackles, which is being carried out by means of political weapons, arms, or a combination of the two, is not separate from the struggle against backwardness and poverty. Both are stages on the same road leading toward the creation of a new society of justice and plenty.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



Socialism cannot exist without a change in consciousness resulting in a new fraternal attitude toward humanity, both at an individual level, within the societies where socialism is being built or has been built, and on a world scale, with regard to all peoples suffering from imperialist oppression.

How can it be “mutually beneficial” to sell at world market prices the raw materials that cost the underdeveloped countries immeasurable sweat and suffering, and to buy at world market prices the machinery produced in today's big automated factories?

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



Wealth is far from being within the reach of the masses simply through the process of appropriation.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



In moments of great peril it is easy to muster a powerful response to moral stimuli; but for them to retain their effect requires the development of a consciousness in which there is a new priority of values.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



For a long time man has been trying to free himself from alienation through culture and art...

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



Silence is argument carried out by other means.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



Cruel leaders are replaced only to have new leaders turn cruel!

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



In fact, if Christ himself stood in my way, I, like Nietzsche, would not hesitate to squish him like a worm.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



The basic clay of our work is the youth; we place our hope in it and prepare it to take the banner from our hands.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



A common argument from the mouths of capitalist spokespeople, in the ideological struggle against socialism, is that socialism, or the period of building socialism into which we have entered, is characterized by the abolition of the individual for the sake of the state.

The state sometimes makes mistakes. When one of these mistakes occurs, a decline in collective enthusiasm is reflected by a resulting quantitative decrease of the contribution of each individual, each of the elements forming the whole of the masses. Work is so paralysed that insignificant quantities are produced. It is time to make a correction.

A more structured connection with the mass is needed, and we must improve it in the course of the coming years. But as far as initiatives originating in the upper strata of the government are concerned, we are currently utilizing the almost intuitive method of sounding out general reactions to the great problems we confront.

I think the place to start is to recognize the individual's quality of incompleteness, of being an unfinished product. The vestiges of the past are brought into the present in one's consciousness, and a continual labor is necessary to eradicate them.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



In the field of ideas not involving productive activities it is easier to distinguish the division between material and spiritual necessity. For a long time man has been trying to free himself from alienation through culture and art. While he dies every day during the eight or more hours that he sells his labour, he comes to life afterwards in his spiritual activities.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



The ultimate and most important revolutionary aspiration: to see human beings liberated from their alienation.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



I don't care if I fall as long as someone else picks up my gun and keeps on shooting.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



If you tremble indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



The great multitudes continue to develop; the new ideas continue to attain their proper force within society; the material possibilities for the full development of all members of society make the task much more fruitful. The present is a time for struggle; the future is ours.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



The change in consciousness will not take place automatically, just as it doesn't take place automatically in the economy. The alterations are slow and are not harmonious; there are periods of acceleration, pauses and even retrogressions.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



Once again I feel beneath my heels the ribs of Rocinante. Once more, I'm on the road with my shield on my arm.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



In a revolution one wins or dies, if it is a real one.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



I have lived magnificent days.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



Other nations of the world summon my modest efforts of assistance.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



I leave a people who received me as a son. That wounds a part of my spirit. I carry to new battlefronts the faith that you taught me, the revolutionary spirit of my people, the feeling of fulfilling the most sacred of duties: to fight against imperialism wherever it may be.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



Many will call me an adventurer — and that I am, only one of a different sort: one of those who risks his skin to prove his platitudes.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara





Now a willpower that I have polished with an artist's delight will sustain some shaky legs and some weary lungs. I will do it. Give a thought once in awhile to this little soldier of fortune of the twentieth century.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



Your father has been a man who acted according to his beliefs and certainly has been faithful to his convictions.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



Above all, try always to be able to feel deeply any injustice committed against any person in any part of the world. It is the most beautiful quality of a revolutionary.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



Remember, there are still many years of struggle ahead, and even when you are a woman, you will have to do your part in the struggle. Meanwhile, you have to prepare yourself, be very revolutionary — which at your age means to learn a lot, as much as possible, and always be ready to support just causes.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



You should fight to be among the best in school. The very best in every sense and you already know what that means; study and revolutionary attitude. In other words: good conduct, seriousness, love for the revolution, comradeship. I was not that way at your age but I lived in a different society, where man was an enemy of man. Now you have the privilege of living in another era and you must be worthy of it.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



The beginnings will not be easy; they shall be extremely difficult.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



Along the way, I had the opportunity to pass through the dominions of the United Fruit, convincing me once again of just how terrible these capitalist octopuses are. I have sworn before a picture of the old and mourned comrade Stalin that I won't rest until I see these capitalist octopuses annihilated.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



I am not Christ or a philanthropist, old lady, I am all the contrary of a Christ.... I fight for the things I believe in, with all the weapons at my disposal and try to leave the other man dead so that I don't get nailed to a cross or any other place.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



It was not capitalism's internal contradictions that, having exhausted all possibilities, caused the system to explode. The struggle for liberation from a foreign oppressor; the misery caused by external events such as war, whose consequences privileged classes place on the backs of the exploited; liberation movements aimed at overthrowing neo-colonial regimes — these are the usual factors in unleashing this kind of explosion.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



If it is an element of liberation for Latin America, I believe that it should have demonstrated that. Until now, I have not been aware of any such demonstration. The IMF performs an entirely different function: precisely that of ensuring that capital based outside of Latin America controls all of Latin America.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



I know you've come to kill me. Shoot, you are only going to kill a man.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



I am not interested in dry economic socialism. We are fighting against misery, but we are also fighting against alienation. One of the fundamental objectives of Marxism is to remove interest, the factor of individual interest, and gain, from people's psychological motivations. Marx was preoccupied both with economic factors and with their repercussions on the spirit. If communism isn't interested in this too, it may be a method of distributing goods, but it will never be a revolutionary way of life.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



Live your life not celebrating victories, but overcoming defeats.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



Knowledge makes us accountable.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara



I was born in Argentina; this is no secret for anyone. I am Cuban as well as Argentinean and, if the highly illustrated lordships of Latin America may not feel offended, I feel such a patriotism for Latin America, for any country in Latin America, that in the moment it might be necessary, I would be ready to yield my life for the liberation of any Latin American nation, without asking anybody anything, without demanding anything, without exploiting anyone.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara