{"id":5522,"date":"2014-11-05T23:01:35","date_gmt":"2014-11-06T04:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/?p=5522"},"modified":"2014-11-13T10:59:50","modified_gmt":"2014-11-13T15:59:50","slug":"a-dozen-gems-from-niccolo-machiavelli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/?p=5522","title":{"rendered":"A dozen gems from Niccolo Machiavelli"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-5523\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Niccol\u00f2_Machiavelli_by_Santi_di_Tito-233x300.jpg\" alt=\"Niccol\u00f2_Machiavelli_by_Santi_di_Tito\" width=\"233\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Niccol\u00f2_Machiavelli_by_Santi_di_Tito-233x300.jpg 233w, https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Niccol\u00f2_Machiavelli_by_Santi_di_Tito-796x1024.jpg 796w, https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Niccol\u00f2_Machiavelli_by_Santi_di_Tito-900x1157.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Niccol\u00f2_Machiavelli_by_Santi_di_Tito-450x578.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Niccol\u00f2_Machiavelli_by_Santi_di_Tito.jpg 1244w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 233px) 100vw, 233px\" \/>\u201cA prudent man should always follow in the path trodden by great men and imitate those who are most excellent, so that if he does not attain to their greatness, at any rate he will get some tinge of it.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cHe who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cMen in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration. Everyone sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are\u2026 in the actions of men\u2026 the end justifies the means.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cAll courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it&#8217;s impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cIt is much safer to be feared than loved because &#8230;love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe vulgar crowd always is taken by appearances, and the world consists chiefly of the vulgar.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThere is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cA man who is used to acting in one way never changes; he must come to ruin when the times, in changing, no longer are in harmony with his ways.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cIt is not titles that honour men, but men that honour titles.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cIt must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cA prudent man should always follow in the path trodden by great men and imitate those who are most excellent, so that if he does not attain to their greatness, at any rate he will get some tinge of it.\u201d \u201cHe who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.\u201d \u201cThe lion cannot protect&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[30,23],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5522"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5524,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5522\/revisions\/5524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}