Machiavelli — "He who desires to rule, must be prepared to use fraud and deceit."
He who desires to rule, must be prepared to use fraud and deceit.
Get This Quote & Author's Image Illustrated On:
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
Kitchen
Apparel
Other
More from Machiavelli
"For it can be said of men in general that they are ungrateful, fickle, feigners and dissemblers, shirkers of dangers, eager for gain."
"Men are generally so simple and so ready to obey present necessities, that one who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived."
"Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number of men who are not good."
"The innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new."
"Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are."
About Machiavelli (1469-1527)
Florentine diplomat and political theorist whose The Prince (written 1513) became the founding text of political realism and gave us the adjective 'Machiavellian.' Closely associated with Francesco Guicciardini (fellow Florentine political analyst and historian). For an intellectual contrast, see Erasmus of Rotterdam, Dutch humanist and The Education of a Christian Prince author (1516) — Erasmus's princely-instruction manual was published three years after Machiavelli's, for the same European audience, and is the explicit Christian-virtue alternative to Machiavellian power-realism. The cleanest 'realism vs idealism' founding pairing in modern political theory.