The reason is that nature has so created men that they are able to desire everything but are not able to attain everything: so that the desire being always greater than the acquisition, there results discontent with the possession and little satisfaction to themselves from it. From this arises the changes in their fortunes; for as men desire, some to have more, some in fear of losing their acquisition, there ensues enmity and war, from which results the ruin of that province and the elevation of another. ✨ Discourses on Livy. Book by Niccolo Machiavelli, Book 1, Ch. 37, (as translated by LJ Walker and B Crick, 1517.
More Author Quotes
- Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.
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- It makes him hated above all things, as I have said, to be rapacious, and to be a violator of the property and women of his subjects, from both of which he must abstain. ✨ Niccolo Machiavelli (2015). … ▶
- Knowing how to fight made men more bold, because no one fears doing what it seems to him he has learned to do. Therefore, the ancients wanted their citizens to be trained in every warlike action.
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