Francesco Guicciardini quotes: top famous quotes and sayings by Francesco Guicciardini

Top Francesco Guicciardini Quotes

Browse top 15 most favorite famous quotes and sayings by Francesco Guicciardini.

Favorite Francesco Guicciardini Quotes

1. "Erra chi dice che le lettere guastano e' cervelli degli uomini, perché è forse vero in chi l'ha debole; ma dove lo truovano buono, lo fanno perfetto; perché el buono naturale congiunto col buono accidentale fa nobilissima composizione." ~ Francesco Guicciardini

2. "Affairs that depend on many rarely succeed." ~ Francesco Guicciardini

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

4. "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." ~ Francesco Guicciardini

5. "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." ~ Francesco Guicciardini

6. "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." ~ Francesco Guicciardini

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

8. "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." ~ Francesco Guicciardini

9. "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." ~ Francesco Guicciardini

10. "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." ~ Francesco Guicciardini

11. "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." ~ Francesco Guicciardini

12. "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." ~ Francesco Guicciardini

13. "Since there is nothing so well worth having as friends, never lose a chance to make them." ~ Francesco Guicciardini

14. "The return we reap from generous actions is not always evident." ~ Francesco Guicciardini

15. "One who imitates what is bad always goes beyond his model; while one who imitates what is good always comes up short of it." ~ Francesco Guicciardini

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Today's Quote

How carelessly imperial power vivisected ancient civilizations. Palestine and Kashmir are imperial Britain's festering,blood-drenched gifts to the modem world. Both are fault lines in the raging international con?icts of today."
Author: Arundhati Roy