“No circumstance is ever so desperate that one cannot nurture some spark of hope.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli, The Mandrake, Act I, scene i, tr. Peter Constantine, 2009

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.”

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”

“You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”

“Myths are made for the imagination to breathe life into them.”

“Public Disputes warm the Imagination, whet the Industry, and strengthen the natural Abilities.”

“Where we find a difficulty we may always expect that a discovery awaits us. Where there is cover we hope for game.”

“For me, reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.”