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Machiavelli Fortune Quotes & Sayings

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Top Machiavelli Fortune Quotes

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

For no man is found so prudent as to know how to adapt himself to these changes, both because he cannot deviate from the course to which nature inclines him, and because, having always prospered while adhering to one path, he cannot be persuaded that it would be well for him to forsake it. And so when occasion requires the cautious man to act impetuously, he cannot do so and is undone: whereas had he changed his nature with time and circumstances, his fortune would have been unchanged. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

do not let our princes accuse fortune for the loss of their principalities after so many years' possession, but rather their own sloth, because in quiet times they never thought there could be a change (it is a common defect in man not to make any provision in the calm against the tempest), and — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

We cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

When fortune wishes to bring mighty events to a successful conclusion, she selects some man of spirit and ability who knows how to seize the opportunity she offers. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

In order not to annul our free will, I judge it true that Fortune may be mistress of one half our actions but then even she leaves the other half, or almost, under our control. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

The world has always been the same; and there is always as much good fortune as bad in it. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

Men are able to assist fortune but not to thwart her. They can weave her designs, but they cannot destroy them. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

I certainly believe this: that it is better to be impetuous than cautious, because Fortune is a woman, and if you want to keep her under it is necessary to beat her and force her down. It is clear that she more often allows herself to be won over by impetuous men than by those who proceed coldly. And so, like a woman, Fortune is always the friend of young men, for they are less cautious, more ferocious, and command her with more audacity. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

Without doubt, princes become great when they overcome the difficulties and obstacles by which they are confronted, and therefore fortune, especially when she desires to make a new prince great, who has a greater necessity to earn renown than an hereditary one, causes enemies to arise and form designs against him, in order that he may have the opportunity of overcoming them, and by them to mount higher, as by a ladder which his enemies have raised. For this reason, many consider that a wise prince, when he has the opportunity, ought with craft to foster some animosity against himself so that, having crushed it, his renown may rise higher. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

It's better to be impulsive than cautious; fortune is female and if you want to stay on top of her you have to slap and thrust. You'll see she's more likely to yield that way than to men who go about her coldly. And being a woman she likes her men young, because they're not so cagey, they're wilder and more daring when they master her. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

A wise prince then ... should never be idle in times of peace but should industriously lay up stores of which to avail himself in times of adversity so that when fortune abandons him he may be prepared to resist her blows. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

It behooves us to adapt oneself to the times if one wants to enjoy continued good fortune. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

One should never risk one's whole fortune unless supported by one's entire forces. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

It may be observed, that provinces amid the vicissitudes to which they are subject, pass from order into confusion, and afterward recur to a state of order again; for the nature of mundane affairs not allowing them to continue in an even course, when they have arrived at their greatest perfection, they soon begin to decline. In the same manner, having been reduced by disorder, and sunk to their utmost state of depression, unable to descend lower, they, of necessity, reascend; and thus from good they gradually decline to evil, and from evil again return to good. The reason is, that valor produces peace; peace, repose; repose, disorder; disorder, ruin; so from disorder order springs; from order virtue, and from this, glory and good fortune. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

To defeat Fortune, men must anticipate such evils before they arise, and take prudent steps to avoid them. When the waters have already risen, it is too late to build dikes and embankments. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

I certainly think that it is better to be impetuous than cautious, for fortune is a woman, and it is necessary, if you wish to master her, to conquer her by force; and it can be seen that she let's herself be overcome by these rather than by those who proceed coldly. And therefore, like a woman, she is a friend to the young, because they are less cautious, fiercer, and master her with greater audacity — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

Nevertheless, that our freewill may not be altogether extinguished, I think it may be true that fortune is the ruler of half our actions, but that she allows the other half or a little less to be governed by us. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

I hold strongly to this: that it is better to be impetuous than circumspect; because fortune is a woman and if she is to be submissive it is necessary to beat and coerce her. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

It is better to be bold than too circumspect, because fortune is of a sex which likes not a tardy wooer and repulses all who are not ardent. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

the prince who relies entirely on fortune is lost when it changes. I believe also that he will be successful who directs his actions according to the spirit of the times, and that he whose actions do not accord with the times will not be successful. Because men are seen, in affairs that lead to the end which every man has before him, namely, glory and riches, to get there by various methods; one with caution, another with haste; one by force, another by skill; one by patience, another by its opposite; and each one succeeds in reaching the goal by a different method. One — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

Those who solely by good fortune become princes from being private citizens have little trouble in rising, but much in keeping atop; they have not any difficulties on the way up because they fly, but they have many when they reach the summit. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

Again, of two who act cautiously, you shall find that one attains his end, the other not, and that two of different temperament, the one cautious, the other impetuous, are equally successful. All which happens from no other cause than that the character of the times accords or does not accord with their methods of acting. And hence it comes, as I have already said, that two operating differently arrive at the same result, and two operating similarly, the one succeeds and the other not. On this likewise depend the vicissitudes of Fortune. For if to one who conducts himself with caution and patience, time and circumstances are propitious, so that his method of acting is good, he goes on prospering; but if these change he is ruined, because he does not change his method of acting. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

To be brief, I say that since Fortune changes and men stand fixed in their old ways, they are prosperous so long as there is congruity between them, and the reverse when there is not. Of this, however, I am well persuaded, that it is better to be impetuous than cautious. For Fortune is a woman who to be kept under must be beaten and roughly handled; and we see that she suffers herself to be more readily mastered by those who so treat her than by those who are more timid in their approaches. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Michael Ennis

I did not have an answer for the maestro that day. Instead my answer has been the labor of my life, principally my Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livy but also my little Prince. Despite what so many say, I did not embark upon this voyage to show men how evil can triumph, but to demonstrate that evil surely will triumph if good men do not strive to learn well its lessons. And now that my usefulness, if not my life itself, has ended, I can say before God and man that I have met the challenge of the great maestro of revered memory issued on the road to Cesenatico. For in my life's work, I crossed the unknown sea and charted a route for all men to follow, should they wish to live in peace and security. — Michael Ennis

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

But a man is not often found sufficiently circumspect to know how to accommodate himself to the change, both because he cannot deviate from what nature inclines him to do, and also because, having always prospered by acting in one way, he cannot be persuaded that it is well to leave it; and, therefore, the cautious man, when it is time to turn adventurous, does not know how to do it, hence he is ruined; but had he changed his conduct with the times fortune would not have changed. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

Men may second fortune, but they cannot thwart her. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

Men can assist Fortune but not oppose her; they can weave her schemes but they cannot break them. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

It is much better to tempt fortune where it can favor you than to see your certain ruin by not tempting it. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Michael Ennis

I no longer believed that Valentino would continue to build anything at all. Instead, he would merely leave behind the empire of hope that he had constructed in each of our minds. Leonardo's empire boasted cities more perfect than Plato or Augustine could have imagined. My empire of hope was an Italy defended by citizen soldiers rather than mercenary thugs, free of tyranny and foreign armies, with justice for all regardless of rank or wealth. But I feared I had come to Cesenatico only to wander among its ruins. — Michael Ennis

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Frederick The Great

(About Cesare Borgia) What cruelties were not the result of his? Who could count all his crimes? Such was the man that Machiavel prefers to all the great geniuses of his time, and to the heroes of antiquity, and of which he finds the life and action make a good example for those that fortune favors. — Frederick The Great

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

I assert once again as a truth to which history as a whole bears witness that men may second their fortune, but cannot oppose it; that they may weave its warp, but cannot break it. Yet they should never give up, because there is always hope, though they know not the end and more towards it along roads which cross one another and as yet are unexplored; and since there is hope, they should not despair, no matter what fortune brings or in what travail they find themselves. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

And in examining their life and deeds it will be seen that they owed nothing to fortune but the opportunity which gave them matter to be shaped into the form that they thought fit; and without that opportunity their powers would have been wasted, and without their powers the opportunity would have come in vain. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

Republics have a longer life and enjoy better fortune than principalities, because they can profit by their greater internal diversity. They are the better able to meet emergencies. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

Set down among these lice, this is how I keep the mold from my brain and find release from Fortune's malice. I am content to have her beat me down this way to see if she won't become ashamed. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By W.K. Marriott

It is in reference to Pope Julius that Machiavelli moralizes on the resemblance between Fortune and women, and concludes that it is the bold rather than the cautious man that will win and hold them both. — W.K. Marriott

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

Thus it is well to seem merciful, faithful, humane, sincere, religious, and also to be so; but you must have the mind so disposed that when it is needful to be otherwise you may be able to change to the opposite qualities. And it must be understood that a prince, and especially a new prince, cannot observe all those things which are considered good in men, being often obliged, in order to maintain the state, to act against faith, against charity, against humanity, and against religion. And, therefore, he must have a mind disposed to adapt itself according to the wind, and as the variations of fortune dictate, and, as I said before, not deviate from what is good, if possible, but be able to do evil if constrained. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

I conclude therefore that, fortune being changeful and mankind steadfast in their ways, so long as the two are in agreement men are successful, but unsuccessful when they fall out. For my part I consider that it is better to be adventurous than cautious, because fortune is a woman, and if you wish to keep her under it is necessary to beat and ill-use her; and it is seen that she allows herself to be mastered by the adventurous rather than by those who go to work more coldly. She is, therefore, always, woman-like, a lover of young men, because they are less cautious, more violent, and with more audacity command her. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli Fortune Quotes By Niccolo Machiavelli

Virtue gives birth to tranquility, tranquility to leisure, leisure to disorder, disorder to ruin ... and similarly from ruin, order is born, from order virtue, from virtue, glory and good fortune. — Niccolo Machiavelli