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Political theory5 quotes
Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasions for it. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1531The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms; and as there cannot be good laws where the state is not well armed, it follows that where they are well armed they have good laws. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532He [the prince] holds to what is right when he can but knows how to do wrong when he must. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1531Many have imagined republics and principalities which have never been seen or known to exist in reality; for how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live; that he who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, will rather bring about his own ruin that his preservation. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532Art4 quotes
I've finished that chapel I was painting. The Pope is quite satisfied. — Michelangelo · 1512The marble not yet carved can hold the form
Of every thought the greatest artist has. — Michelangelo · 1564Painting is poetry which is seen and not heard, and poetry is a painting which is heard but not seen. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1519This benign nature so provides that over all the world you find something to imitate. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1519Government3 quotes
Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasions for it. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1531The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms; and as there cannot be good laws where the state is not well armed, it follows that where they are well armed they have good laws. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532Many have imagined republics and principalities which have never been seen or known to exist in reality; for how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live; that he who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, will rather bring about his own ruin that his preservation. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532Hell3 quotes
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. — Dante Alighieri · 1321There sighs, lamentations and loud wailings resounded through the starless air, so that at first it made me weep; strange tongues, horrible language, words of pain, tones of anger, voices loud and hoarse, and with these the sound of hands, made a tumult which is whirling through that air forever dark, as sand eddies in a whirlpool. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Let us not speak of them, but look, and pass on. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Human nature3 quotes
Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasions for it. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1531So long as the great majority of men are not deprived of either property or honour, they are satisfied. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1531Nature3 quotes
Human subtlety... Will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does Nature, because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1519In disputes about natural phenomena one must begin not with the authority of Scriptural passage but with sensory experience and necessary demonstrations. For the Holy Scripture and nature derive equally from the Godhead, the former as the dictation of the Holy Spirit and the latter as the most obedient executrix of God's orders. — Galileo Galilei · 1615This benign nature so provides that over all the world you find something to imitate. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1519Plague3 quotes
There was no one who wept for any death, for all awaited death. — Agnolo di Tura del GrossoThey dug for each graveyard a huge trench, in which they laid the corpses as they arrived by hundreds at a time, piling them up tier upon tier as merchandise is stowed in a ship. — Giovanni Boccaccio · 1353In this extremity of our city's suffering and tribulation the revered authority of laws, human and divine, was abased and all but totally dissolved, for lack of those who should have administered and enforced them, most of whom, like the rest of the citizens, were either dead or sick, or so hard pressed for servants that they were unable to execute any office; whereby every man was free to do what was right in his own eyes. — Giovanni Boccaccio · 1353The Black Death3 quotes
There was no one who wept for any death, for all awaited death. — Agnolo di Tura del GrossoThey dug for each graveyard a huge trench, in which they laid the corpses as they arrived by hundreds at a time, piling them up tier upon tier as merchandise is stowed in a ship. — Giovanni Boccaccio · 1353In this extremity of our city's suffering and tribulation the revered authority of laws, human and divine, was abased and all but totally dissolved, for lack of those who should have administered and enforced them, most of whom, like the rest of the citizens, were either dead or sick, or so hard pressed for servants that they were unable to execute any office; whereby every man was free to do what was right in his own eyes. — Giovanni Boccaccio · 1353Free will2 quotes
God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532The greatest gift which God in His bounty
Bestowed in creating,
And the most conformed to His own goodness
And that which He most prizes, was the freedom of the will,
With which the creatures that have intelligence,
They all and they alone, were and are endowed. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Leadership2 quotes
It is much safer to be feared than loved. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1527This leads to a debate: is it better to be loved than feared, or the reverse? The answer is that it is desirable to be both, but because it is difficult to join them together, it is much safer for a prince to be feared than loved, if he is to fail in one of the two. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532Love2 quotes
Love and the gracious heart are a single thing…
One can no more be without the other
Than the reasoning mind without its reason. — Dante Alighieri · 1294Love hath so long possessed me for his own
And made his lordship so familiar. — Dante Alighieri · 1294Man and animals2 quotes
A prince being thus obliged to know well how to act as a beast must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532Man and animal are merely a passage and channel for food, a tomb for other animals, a haven for the dead, giving life by the death of others, a coffer full of corruption. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1508Painting2 quotes
Perspective is the bridle and rudder of painting. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1519Painting is poetry which is seen and not heard, and poetry is a painting which is heard but not seen. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1519Pandemics2 quotes
There was no one who wept for any death, for all awaited death. — Agnolo di Tura del GrossoThey dug for each graveyard a huge trench, in which they laid the corpses as they arrived by hundreds at a time, piling them up tier upon tier as merchandise is stowed in a ship. — Giovanni Boccaccio · 1353Sculpture2 quotes
The more the marble wastes, the more the statue grows. — Michelangelo · 1525The contours of its legs are extremely beautiful, along with the splendid articulations and grace of its flanks, a sweeter and more graceful pose has never been seen that could equal it, nor have feet, hands, and a head ever been produced which so well match all the other parts of the body in skill of workmanship or design. To be sure, anyone who sees the statue need not be concerned with seeing any other piece of sculpture done in our times or in any other period by any other artist. — Giorgio Vasari · 1550Argument from authority1 quote
Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but rather memory. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1519Art and money1 quote
Painting and sculpture, hard work and fair dealing have been my ruin and things go continually from bad to worse. It would have been better had I been put to making matches in my youth than to be in such a fret! — Michelangelo · 1542Beauty1 quote
If it be true that any beautiful thing raises the pure and just desire of man from earth to God, the eternal fount of all, such I believe my love. — Michelangelo · 1525Beginning of a journey1 quote
My course is set for an uncharted sea. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Being in love1 quote
In that part of the book of my memory, before which very little is written, there is a heading that reads "Here begins a new life". — Dante Alighieri · 1294Circle of life1 quote
Man and animal are merely a passage and channel for food, a tomb for other animals, a haven for the dead, giving life by the death of others, a coffer full of corruption. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1508Climbing mountains1 quote
Today I climbed the highest mountain in this region, which is not improperly called Ventosus (Windy). The only motive for my ascent was the wish to see what so great a height had to offer. — Petrarch · 1336Color1 quote
With the color that paints the morning and evening clouds that face the sun I saw then the whole heaven suffused. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Conscience1 quote
O pure and noble conscience, how bitter a sting to thee is a little fault! — Dante Alighieri · 1321Courage1 quote
Here one must leave behind all hesitation;
here every cowardice must meet its death. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Curiosity1 quote
Today I climbed the highest mountain in this region, which is not improperly called Ventosus (Windy). The only motive for my ascent was the wish to see what so great a height had to offer. — Petrarch · 1336Death1 quote
We are continually dying; I while I am writing these words, you while you are reading them, others when they hear them or fail to hear them. I shall be dying when you read this, you die while I write, we both are dying, we all are dying, we are dying forever. — Petrarch · 1360Destiny1 quote
If thou follow thy star, thou canst not fail of a glorious haven. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Determinism1 quote
God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532Discovery of America1 quote
Those new regions which we found and explored with the fleet... We may rightly call a New World... A continent more densely peopled and abounding in animals other than our Europe or Asia or Africa; and, in addition, a climate milder than in any other region known to us. — Amerigo Vespucci · 1503