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Cunning and deceit will every time serve a man better than force to rise from a base condition to great fortune.

— Niccolò Machiavelli Discourses on Livy (1517)

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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)

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

Florentine Histories (1526)

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)

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In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind.

Louis Pasteur

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.

William Shakespeare Twelfth Night (1601)

O Fortune, cruellest of heavenly powers,
Why make such game of this poor life of ours?

Horace Satires (-35)

Vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave.

Edward Gibbon The History of the Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire (1776)

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.