Authors / Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli quotes

1469–1527 · Florentine diplomat and political thinker

Machiavelli wrote The Prince as a job application to the Medici and became a byword for cunning. We quote W. K. Marriott's 1908 translation.

2 real · 1 not theirs

Really theirs

2 quotes traced to Niccolò Machiavelli's own work or a reliable witness.

Sourced

It is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with.

Source: The Prince, ch. 17, tr. W. K. Marriott

Sourced

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.

Source: The Prince, ch. 6, tr. W. K. Marriott

Not theirs

1 famous lines credited to Niccolò Machiavelli that are misquoted, unsourced or belong to someone else.

Misquoted

The end justifies the means.

The real words: Not in The Prince. Chapter 18 says that in the actions of princes "one judges by the result" — close in spirit, but the slogan is later.