Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes

On whether a new manager should prioritize being liked or being respected:

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

On leaving a stable job to start a risky venture:

Never was anything great achieved without danger.

On noticing a leader who always has a justification for breaking commitments:

A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise.

On managing your reputation versus managing your actual character:

Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel.

On updating a strategy that used to work but no longer does:

Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.

On starting a company and facing resistance from everyone invested in the old way:

There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system.

On how much of a setback to blame on bad luck versus your own choices:

Fortune is the arbiter of half of our actions, but she still leaves us to direct the other half.

On judging a potential business partner by who they keep close:

The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.

On why you keep trusting someone who has lied to you before:

Whoever deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.

Deciding how much of your true self to reveal in a new role:

Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.

Reading the motives behind a colleague's sudden ambition:

Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.

Deciding how much to compromise your ideals to survive a tough environment:

Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good.

Deciding how to get honest feedback from people who only tell you what you want to hear:

There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.

Deciding how much to prepare before entering a competitive situation:

Before all else, be armed.

On taking a prestigious title that you have not yet grown into:

It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.

Deciding whether a conflict is worth escalating:

War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.

Deciding how much to trust a new business partner's promises:

It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are bad.