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Niccolo Machiavelli Quote

“There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.”

— Niccolo Machiavelli

Source: Quotables — alvations/Quotables (CC0 1.0 dataset)

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Never was anything great achieved without danger.

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Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.

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A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.

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Politics have no relation to morals.

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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.

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