Francesco Guicciardini Quotes

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

He who imitates what is evil always goes beyond the example that is set; on the contrary, he who imitates what is good always falls short.

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

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

Be more guided by hope than fear.

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

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.

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.

We fight to great disadvantage when we fight with those who have nothing to lose.

When wicked or ignorant men govern, it is not surprising that virtue and goodness are not esteemed. For the former hate them, and the latter do not know them.

Affairs that depend on many rarely succeed.

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

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.

There is no evil in human affairs that has not some good mingled with it.
[It., Non e male alcuno nelle cose umane che non abbia congiunto seco qualche bene.]

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.

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.