Skip to content

Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please.

— Niccolò Machiavelli Florentine Histories (1526)

Comincionsi le guerre quando altri vuole, ma non quando altri vuole si finiscono.

Original text (Italian)

Another quote →

Variants

"Wars are begun at will but not ended at will." (tr. Allan Gilbert, 1965); "People may go to war when they will, but cannot always withdraw when they like." (tr. Anonymous, 1901)

Topics

War

More quotes by Niccolò Machiavelli

Discipline in war counts more than fury.

The Art of War (1520)

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)

Fear of evil is greater than the evil itself.

The Mandrake (1524)

The reason is easy to understand, for it is the common good and not private gain that makes cities great.

Discourses on Livy (1517)

All Niccolò Machiavelli quotes →

You may also like

All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

Albert Einstein Moral Decay (1937)

The last half of the 20th century will seem like a wild party for rich kids, compared to what's coming now.

Hunter S. Thompson

Only the dead have seen the end of war.

George Santayana Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies (1922)

Wars produce many stories of fiction, some of which are told until they are believed to be true.

Ulysses S. Grant Personal Memoirs of General U. S. Grant (1885)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Niccolò Machiavelli (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.