Machiavelli is also one of history’s most quotable figures. Some of the things he said ring true, not just for political leadership but organizational management. Here are some quotes that safety professionals might find pertinent, even if they don’t agree with them:

• A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise.
• Before all else, be armed.
• Benefits should be conferred gradually; and in that way they will taste better.
• Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.
• If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
• It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
• It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.
• It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.
• Never was anything great achieved without danger.
• No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
• One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.
• Severities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offense; benefits ought to be handed ought drop by drop, so that they may be relished the more.
• The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.
• The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.
• The one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not.
• The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.
• There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.

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