Best 27 quotes of Francesco Guicciardini on MyQuotes

Affairs that depend on many rarely succeed.

Ambassadors are the eye and ear of states.

Ambition is not in itself an evil; nor is he to be condemned whose spirit prompts him to seek fame by worthy and honourable ways.

As it is our nature to be more moved by hope than fear, the example of one we see abundantly rewarded cheers and encourages us far more than the sight of many who have not been well treated disquiets us.

Be careful how you do one man a pleasure which must needs occasion equal displeasure in another. For he who is thus slighted will not forget, but will think the offence to himself the greater in that another profits by it; while he who receives the pleasure will either not remember it, or will consider the favour done him less than it really was.

By numberless examples it will evidently appear that human affairs are as subject to change and fluctuation as the waters of the sea agitated by the winds.

Conspiracies, since they cannot be engaged in without the fellowship of others, are for that reason most perilous; for as most men are either fools or knaves, we run excessive risk in making such folk our companions.

Experience has always shown, and reason also, that affairs which depend on many seldom succeed.

He is less likely to be mistaken who looks forward to a change in the affairs of the world than he who regards them as firm and stable.

How much luckier than all the rest of mankind are the astrologers who, if they tell one truth among a hundred lies, obtain so much credit that even their lies are believed.

If you attempt certain things at the right time, they are easy to accomplish - in fact, they almost get done by themselves. If you undertake them before the time is right, not only will they fail, but they will often become impossible to accomplish even when the time would have been right.

I know no man who feels deeper disgust than I do at the ambition, avarice, and profligacy of the priesthood, as well because every one of these vices is odious in itself, as because each of them separately and all of them together are utterly abhorrent in men making profession of a life dedicated to God.

It is a great matter to be in authority over others; for authority, if it be rightly used, will make you feared beyond your actual resources.

Keep your eye fixed not so much on what they [people] ought in reason to do, as on what they are likely to do based on their disposition and habits.

Let no one trust so entirely to natural prudence as to persuade himself that it will suffice to guide him without help from experience.

Like other men, I have sought honours and preferment, and often have obtained them beyond my wishes or hopes. Yet never have I found in them that content which I had figured beforehand in my mind. A strong reason, if we well consider it, why we should disencumber ourselves of vain desires.

Pay no heed to those who tell you that they have relinquished place and power of their own accord, and from their love of quiet. For almost always they have been brought to this retirement by their insufficiency and against their will.

Since there is nothing so well worth having as friends, never lose a chance to make them.

The affairs of this world are so shifting and depend on so many accidents, that it is hard to form any judgment concerning the future; nay, we see from experience that the forecasts even of the wise almost always turn out false.

The return we reap from generous actions is not always evident.

To give vent now and then to his feelings, whether of pleasure or discontent, is a great ease to a man's heart.

To relinquish a present good through apprehension of a future evil is in most instances unwise ... from a fear which may afterwards turn out groundless, you lost the good that lay within your grasp.

Waste no time with revolutions that do not remove the causes of your complaints but simply change the faces of those in charge.

But it is dangerous to follow Examples, if they do not correspond in the most material Circumstances with the present State of our Affairs; are not conducted with equal Judgment, or attended with the like Prospect of Success.

Capponi and his Colleagues being one Day in the King's Presence, while one of the royal Secretaries was reading over the immoderate Articles which were proposed as the ultimate Propositions on the King's Part, he fell in a Passion, and violently snatching the Paper out of the Secretary's Hand, tore it to Pieces before the King's Face; adding in a high Tone of Voice, 'Since you demand such dishonourable Conditions, sound your Trumpets, and we will sound our Bellls;' By which he intended as much a if he had said in plain Words, 'Let the Differences be decided by Arms.' With this Speech, and with the same Air of Indignation, followed by his Colleagues, he abruptly left the room.

Ferdinando [King of Naples] resolv’d, in good Earnest, to try how to compromise the Affair of the Castles; being persuaded, that that when this Obstacle was remov'd, Matters would easily return into the fame peaceable Channel. But by removing the Causes, the Effects that sprung from them are not always remov'd. For, as it frequently happens, that Resolutions taken out of Fear seldom appear sufficient to the Fearful.

It is our nature to be more moved by hope than fear.