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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 · 1532Government3 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 · 1531Free 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 · 1294Plague2 quotes
They 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 Death2 quotes
They 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 · 1353Beginning 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 · 1294Color1 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 · 1321Destiny1 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 · 1503Disenchanted world1 quote
A life in which the gods are not invited is not worth living. It will be quieter, but there won't be any stories. — Roberto Calasso · 1988Expediency1 quote
He [the prince] holds to what is right when he can but knows how to do wrong when he must. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532Fame1 quote
Worldly renown is naught but a breath of wind, which now comes this way and now comes that, and changes name because it changes quarter. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Fear in politics1 quote
It is much safer to be feared than loved. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1527Fickleness of fame1 quote
Worldly renown is naught but a breath of wind, which now comes this way and now comes that, and changes name because it changes quarter. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Fortune1 quote
The cause of the bad and of the good fortune of men is the way in which their method of working fits the times. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1531Free will vs. determinism1 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 · 1532God's will1 quote
In His will is our peace. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Grace1 quote
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 · 1294Guns1 quote
Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532Hard times1 quote
There is no greater pain than to remember a happy time when one is in misery. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Haste1 quote
Haste denies all acts their dignity. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Hope1 quote
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. — Dante Alighieri · 1321