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

— Niccolò Machiavelli, Florentine Histories (1526), Book III, Chapter 7, tr. Emma Martin (1845)

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.”

“A whole is that which has beginning, middle, and end.”

“Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.”

“All becoming and growing—all that guarantees a future—involves pain.”

“Great is the art of beginning, but greater the art is of ending.”

“All progress means war with Society.”

“All great truths begin as blasphemies.”