Many have dreamed up republics and principalities that have never in truth been known to exist; the gulf between how one should live and how one does live is so wide that a man who neglects what is actually done for what should be done learns the way to self-destruction rather than self-preservation. |
Many 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 abandons what is done for what ought to be done, will rather bring about |
May princes know then that they begin to lose (their) state at that hour in which they begin to break the laws and those customs and usages that are ancient and under which men have lived for a long time |
Men are more apt to be mistaken in their generalizations than in their particular observations. |
Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions |
Men are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer to be tricked. |
Men in general judge more by the sense of sight than by the sense of touch, because everyone can see, but only a few can test by feeling. Everyone sees what you seem to be, few know what you really are, and those few do not dare take a stand against the general opinion. |
Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration |
Men nearly always follow the tracks made by others and proceed in their affairs by imitation, even though they cannot entirely keep to the tracks of others or emulate the prowess of their models. So a prudent man should always follow in the footsteps of great men and imitate those who have been outstanding. If his own prowess fails to compare with theirs, at least it has an air of greatness about it. He should behave like those archers who, if they are skilful, when the target seems too distant, know the capabilities of their bow and aim a good deal higher than their objective, not in order to shoot so high but so that by aiming high they can reach the target. |
Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared. |
Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others. |
Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot |
Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear. |
Men sooner forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony. |
Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds. |