Niccolò Machiavelli Quotes

Men are always wicked at bottom unless they are made good by some compulsion.

One never finds anything perfectly pure and ... exempt from danger.

Where the willingness is great the difficulties cannot be great.

Men are always averse to enterprises in which they foresee difficulties.

Fear is secured by a dread of punishment.

Men hesitate less to injure a man who makes himself loved than to injure one who makes himself feared for their love is held by a chain of obligation which because of men's wickedness is broken on every occasion for the sake of selfish profit but their fear is secured by a dread of punishment.

Wisdom consists in being able to distinguish among dangers and make a choice of the least harmful.

Decide which is the line of conduct that presents the fewest drawbacks and then follow it out as being the best one because one never finds anything perfectly pure and unmixed or exempt from danger.