“Men never do good unless necessity drives them to it; but when they are free to choose and can do just as they please, confusion and disorder become rampant.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy (1517), Book 1, Ch. 3, tr. L. J. Walker and B. Crick

About Niccolò Machiavelli

1469 – 1527

Florentine diplomat and political philosopher, author of 'The Prince' (1513) and 'Discourses on Livy'.

“There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things.”

“It is not titles that make men illustrious, but men who make titles illustrious.”

“Cunning and deceit will every time serve a man better than force to rise from a base condition to great fortune.”

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

“It is unlikely that the good of a snail should reside in its shell: so is it likely that the good of a man should?”

“In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.”

“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.”

“That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.”

“Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.”