13 quotes
Anyone who studies present and ancient affairs will easily see how in all cities and all peoples there still exist, and have always existed, the same desires and passions.
Discourses on Livy (1517)
Cunning and deceit will every time serve a man better than force to rise from a base condition to great fortune.
Discourses on Livy (1517)
The reason is easy to understand, for it is the common good and not private gain that makes cities great.
Discourses on Livy (1517)
For war is made on a commonwealth for two reasons: to subjugate it, and for fear of being subjugated by it.
Discourses on Livy (1517)
It is not titles that make men illustrious, but men who make titles illustrious.
Discourses on Livy (1517)
The end of the republic is to enervate and to weaken all other bodies so as to increase its own body.
Discourses on Livy (1517)
Men never do good unless necessity drives them to it; but when they are free to choose and can do just as they please, confusion and disorder become rampant.
Discourses on Livy (1517)
It is enough to ask somebody for his weapons without saying 'I want to kill you with them', because when you have his weapons in hand, you can satisfy your desire.
Discourses on Livy (1517)
So in all human affairs one notices, if one examines them closely, that it is impossible to remove one inconvenience without another emerging.
Discourses on Livy (1517)
This return of Republics back to their principles also results from the simple virtue of one man, without depending on any law that excites him to any execution: none the less, they are of such influence and example that good men desire to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life contrary to those examples.
Discourses on Livy (1517)
Whenever men are not obliged to fight from necessity, they fight from ambition; which is so powerful in human breasts, that it never leaves them no matter to what rank they rise. The reason is that nature has so created men that they are able to desire everything but are not able to attain everything.
Discourses on Livy (1517)
When Scipio became consul and was keen on getting the province of Africa, promising that Carthage should be completely destroyed, and the senate would not agree to this because Fabius Maximus was against it, he threatened to appeal to the people, for he knew full well how pleasing such projects are to the populace.
Discourses on Livy (1517)
The people resemble a wild beast, which, naturally fierce and accustomed to live in the woods, has been brought up, as it were, in a prison and in servitude, and having by accident got its liberty, not being accustomed to search for its food, and not knowing where to conceal itself, easily becomes the prey of the first who seeks to incarcerate it again.
Discourses on Livy (1517)