Niccolo Machiavelli citáty

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„Prvou metódou, ako odhadnúť inteligenciu vládcu, je pozrieť sa na mužov, ktorých má okolo seba.“

„Muži vo všeobecnosti súdia viac podľa výzoru ako podľa skutočnosti. Všetci ľudia majú oči, ale len málo z nich má dar prenikania do hĺbky.“

„Bez hrozby nebezpečenstva sa nikdy nedosiahlo nič veľké.“

„Ak sa má človeku ublížiť, malo by to byť také vážne, aby sa nebolo treba obávať jeho pomsty.“

„Základnou ľudskou slabosťou je, že človek nepredvída búrku, keď je pekné počasie.“

„Všetci ľudia sú zlí, kým ich potreba neprivedie k tomu, aby boli dobrí.“

„…v ľude je tým menej zbožnosti, čím bližšie k sídlu rímskej cirkvi býva.
Kniha I, Kapitola 12“

„Každý vie, ako veľmi vladára ctí, keď drží dané slovo, žije pravdovravne a bez úskokov. Naša dnešná skúsenosť nás však učí niečo iné: veľké veci dosiahli práve tí, čo o dané slovo nedbali a prefíkanosťou si dokázali opantať ľudí a nakoniec premohli tých, čo si zakladali na svedomitosti.“

„Ľudia sú takí prostorekí a toľko sa pachtia za tým, čo práve potrebujú, že kto chce klamať, vždy nájde niekoho, kto sa oklamať dá.“

„Nenávisť vyvoláme dobrým skutkom práve tak ako zlým.“

„Obráť sa čelom k svojmu osudu. Buď sa zlu vyhni - a ak sa mu nemôžeš vyhnúť, znášaj ho ako muž.“

„Ani v jednej veci, ktorú kedy človek urobil alebo vymyslel, nemožno odstrániť žiadne zlo bez toho, aby pritom nevzniklo hneď zlo iné.“

„Múdry politik nikdy nedrží dané slovo, pokiaľ by mu mal byť vlastný sľub na škodu, alebo keď pominú okolnosti, za ktorých svoje slovo dal.“

„Najláskavejšie zo všetkých stvorení sú ženy, a najnepríjemnejšie tiež.“

„Trest je ako jed, ktorého lekár použije, keď inak nemôže liečiť.“

„Človek nemá nikdy padať na zem, len pretože verí, že ho niekto zdvihne.“

„Kde ľud robí dobrotu bez zákonov, tam netreba zákony. Ak však prestane tento dobrý zvyk, hneď sú potrebné zákony.“

„Lev sa nedokáže sám uchrániť pred pascami a líška sa sama neobráni pred vlkmi. Preto treba byť líškou aby si rozpoznal pasce a levom, aby si odstrašil vlkov.
Kapitola 17“

„A preto všetci ozbrojení proroci zvíťazili a všetci neozbrojení proroci boli zničení.
Kapitola 6“

„Kto kreslí krajinky a chce si urobiť predstavu o vrchoch a vyvýšeninách, postaví sa na nížinu, ak si chce urobiť predstavu o nížine, vyjde hore na vrchy. Podobne treba byť vladárom, aby človek dobre poznal povahu národov a človekom z ľudu, aby dobre poznal povahu vladárov.“

„Lekári vravievajú o suchotách: na začiatku sa ľahko liečia, no ťažko rozpoznávajú, ale ak ich nerozpoznáme a neliečime hneď zo začiatku, neskôr už márne spoznávame ich jasné príznaky. So štátom je to tak isto; kto spozná jeho neduhy s dostatočným predstihom, rýchlo sa ich zbaví. Kto sa však spočiatku o ne nestará a dovolí im narásť natoľko, až ich vidí každý, ten na ne už nenájde liek.“

„V politice, kde není odvolávacího soudu, soudí člověk podle výsledku.“

„Vladárovi nikdy nechýba legitímny dôvod na to, aby porušil svoj sľub.
Kapitola 18“

„… základom vojny nie je zlato, ale dobrí vojaci.“

„Schopný vládca nemyslí ani v mieri na nič iného, než ako povedie nasledujúcu vojnu.“

„Novátor má nepriateľov medzi tými, ktorí sa uspokoja so starými zákonmi a má len váhavých obhajcov v tých, ktorí dúfajú, že novými zákonmi získajú.“

„Osud je len prostredím, súhrnom podmienok v ktorých človek musí konať, osud rozhoduje o polovici našich skutkov ale necháva nám voľnú ruku nad druhou polovicou.“

„Tak je to aj s osudom, ukazuje svoju moc tam kde niet ochrannej sily svojou zúrivosťou doráža tam kde vie, že niet hrádzi a hradieb ktoré by ju skrotili.“

„Vládca rozhodne nemusí mať všetky dobré vlastnosti, ale mal by vedieť vzbudiť dojem, že ich má. Keď ich má, je krajne nežiaduce, aby sa nimi za všetkých okolností riadil.“

„Ctižiadosť je tou najsilnejšou vášňou v ľudských prsiach. Nech dosiahneme akokoľvek vysoko, nikdy nie sme spokojní.“

„Dobrá rada nerobí dobrého vládcu, ale presne naopak, múdry vládca je pôvodcom a príčinou všetkých dobrých rád.“

„Je nemožné presvedčiť človeka, ktorý má pri svojom konaní šťastie, že by konal lepšie, keby svoje konanie zmenil. Takto sa mení ľudské šťastie - menia sa časy, avšak človek svoje chovanie nezmení.“

“Nature creates few men brave, industry and training makes many.”

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

“For one change always leaves a dovetail into which another will fit.”

“It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.”

“One should never fall in the belief that you can find someone to pick you up.”

“My view is that it is desirable to be both loved and feared; but it is difficult to achieve both and, if one of them has to be lacking, it is much safer to be feared than loved.”

“Therefore the best fortress is to be found in the love of the people, for although you may have fortresses they will not save you if you are hated by the people.”

“I hold strongly to this: that it is better to be impetuous than circumspect; because fortune is a woman and if she is to be submissive it is necessary to beat and coerce her.”

“And truly it is a very natural and ordinary thing to desire to acquire, and always, when men do it who can, they will be praised or not blamed; but when they cannot, and wish to do it anyway, here lies the error and the blame.”

“It ought to be remembered that 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.”

“Is it better to be loved or feared?”

“Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please.”

“The best possible fortress is—not to be hated by the people.”

“It is the nature of men to be bound by the benefits they confer as much as by those they receive.”

“The people resemble a wild beast, which, naturally fierce and accustomed to live in the woods, has been brought up, as it were, in a prison and in servitude, and having by accident got its liberty, not being accustomed to search for its food, and not knowing where to conceal itself, easily becomes the prey of the first who seeks to incarcerate it again.”

“And therefore a prince who does not understand the art of war, over and above the other misfortunes already mentioned, cannot be respected by his soldiers, nor can he rely on them. He ought never, therefore, to have out of his thoughts this subject of war, and in peace he should addict himself more to its exercise than in war; this he can do in two ways, the one by action, the other by study.”

“Bad company will lead a man to the gallows!”

“It is enough to ask somebody for his weapons without saying 'I want to kill you with them', because when you have his weapons in hand, you can satisfy your desire.”

“For as when much superfluous matter has gathered in simple bodies, nature makes repeated efforts to remove and purge it away, thereby promoting the health of these bodies, so likewise as regards that composite body the human race, when every province of the world so teems with inhabitants that they can neither subsist where they are nor remove elsewhere, every region being equally crowded and over-peopled, and when human craft and wickedness have reached their highest pitch, it must needs come about that the world will purge herself in one or another of these three ways, to the end that men, becoming few and contrite, may amend their lives and live with more convenience.”

“It should be noted that hatred is acquired as much by good works as by bad ones, therefore, as I said before, a prince wishing to keep his state is very often forced to do evil.”

“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.”

“Hence it comes that all armed prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed prophets have been destroyed.”

“There are three classes of intellects: one which comprehends by itself; another which appreciates what others comprehend; and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others; the first is the most excellent, the second is good, and the third is useless.”

“Men are so simple, and so subject to present necessities, that he who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived.”

“As all those have shown who have discussed civil institutions, and as every history is full of examples, it is necessary to whoever arranges to found a Republic and establish laws in it, to presuppose that all men are bad and that they will use their malignity of mind every time they have the opportunity; and if such malignity is hidden for a time, it proceeds from the unknown reason that would not be known because the experience of the contrary had not been seen, but time, which is said to be the father of every truth, will cause it to be discovered.”

“It may be observed, that provinces amid the vicissitudes to which they are subject, pass from order into confusion, and afterward recur to a state of order again; for the nature of mundane affairs not allowing them to continue in an even course, when they have arrived at their greatest perfection, they soon begin to decline. In the same manner, having been reduced by disorder, and sunk to their utmost state of depression, unable to descend lower, they, of necessity, reascend; and thus from good they gradually decline to evil, and from evil again return to good. The reason is, that valor produces peace; peace, repose; repose, disorder; disorder, ruin; so from disorder order springs; from order virtue, and from this, glory and good fortune.”

“This return of Republics back to their principles also results from the simple virtue of one man, without depending on any law that excites him to any execution: none the less, they are of such influence and example that good men desire to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life contrary to those examples.”

“Fear of evil is greater than the evil itself.”

“When Machiavelli came to the end of his life, he had a vision shortly before giving up the ghost. He saw a small company of poor scoundrels, all in rags, ill-favoured, famished, and, in short, in as bad plight as possible. He was told that these were the inhabitants of paradise, of whom it is written, Beati pauperes, quoniam ipsorum est regnum caelorum.. After this, he was asked to which of the groups he would choose to belong; he answered that he would much rather be in Hell with those great geniuses, to converse with them about affairs of state, than be condemned to the company of the verminous scoundrels that he had first been shown.”