"When evening comes, I return home and enter my study; on the threshold I take off my workday clothes, covered with mud and dirt, and put on the garments of court and palace. Fitted out appropriately, I step inside the venerable courts of the ancients, where, solicitously received by them, I nourish myself on that food that alone is mine and for which I was born; where I am unashamed to converse with them and to question them about the motives for their actions, and they, out of their human kindness, answer me. And for four hours at a time I feel no boredom, I forget all my troubles, I do not dread poverty, and I am not terrified by death. I absorb myself into them completely."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Letter to Francesco Vettori (10 December 1513), as translated by James Atkinson, in Prince Machiavelli (1976), p. 19
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Niccol%C3%B2_Machiavelli
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Niccolò Machiavelli
114 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Niccolò Machiavelli →
Related Quotes
"How laudable it is for a prince to keep good faith and live with integrity, and not with astuteness, every one knows.…"
"The prince must consider, as has been in part said before, how to avoid those things which will make him hated or con…"
"...debbe un uomo prudente entrare sempre per vie battute da uomini grandi, e quelli che sono stati eccellentissimi, i…"
"I say that every prince must desire to be considered merciful and not cruel. He must, however, take care not to misus…"
"Politics have no relation to morals."
"It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more unc…"
"Upon this, one has to remark that men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves …"
"Now, in order to execute a political commission well, it is necessary to know the character of the prince and those w…"
"In judging policies we should consider the results that have been achieved through them rather than the means by whic…"
"It is easier for the prince to make friends of those men who were contented under the former government, and are ther…"