The first method of estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.
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 induction of a new order of things.
- Topic: Accountability, Courage, Decision, Leadership, Success
More Quotes from Niccolo Machiavelli
From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved rather than feared, or feared rather than loved. It might perhaps be answered that we should wish to be both: but since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.
The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.
The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.
Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.
Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration.
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If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.
The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely the one who dropped it.
He who blames others has a long way to go on his journey. He who blames himself is halfway there. He who blames no one has arrived.
When an archer misses the mark, he turns and looks for the fault within himself. Failure to hit the bull's--eye is never the fault of the target. To improve your aim, improve yourself.
There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.
The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed.
You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.
I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you are not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.
Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.
Give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind, spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies.
Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.
I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it—but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.
I must be a mermaid, I have no fear of depths, and a great fear of shallow living.
You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.
The great decisions of human life have as a rule far more to do with the instincts and other mysterious unconscious factors than with conscious will and well-meaning reasonableness.
Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be.
The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%.
Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really man it.
Your first and foremost job as a leader is to take charge of your own energy and then to help to orchestrate the energy of those around you.
My prayer is that when I die, all hell rejoices that I am out of the fight.
If you want the cooperation of humans around you, you must make them feel they are important, and you do that by being genuine and humble.
It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow-beings.
Only 3 things happen naturally in organizations: friction, confusion, and under performance. Everything else requires leadership.
Love inspires, illumines, designates and leads the way.
Let us remind ourselves that it is ordinary people – men and women, boys and girls – that make the world a special place.
When you say 'yes' to others, make sure you are not saying 'no' to yourself.
The planet does not need more “successful people.” The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds.
There is only one success—to be able to spend your life in your own way.
The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity.
Before a man can accomplish anything of an enduring nature in the world, he must first of all acquire some measure of success in the management of his own mind.
Without the assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well.
We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to mankind.
The man who earns a million, but destroys his health in the process is not really a success.
