The maxims of Francis Guicciardini, tr. by E. Martin. With parallel passages from the works of Machiavelli and others |
Common terms and phrases
Affairs afterward Ambassador Apostolo Zeno benefit better bien c'est canto Capponi cause chances chap City contrary Counsel danger Dante desire Discourses on Livy doit doth doth know Duke enemy Essays Etats etiam être evil fait Father faut favour Fontanini Fortune France Francesco Sansovino FRANCIS GUICCIARDINI Gouvernement Despotique Government grand greater Guicciardini's Maxims hath History of Florence History of Italy hommes honour hope infinite Jacopo judge judgment King Kingdom of Naples l'honneur l'on Liberty libro Livre xii Loix Lord Bacon Ludovico Sforza Machia Machiavelli man's Manni Maximes Morales Medici ment mind mœurs Nature never occasion Palazzo Vecchio Peuple peut Piero Piero Soderini Pope Prince prudence qu'ils qu'on reason République reputation seek shew speak tesquieu thee thereof thine thing thou art thou dost thou hast thou shalt thou wouldest thyself Tiraboschi Tomo tout Tyrant velli Venice vertu viii virtue Wherefore wherein wise
Popular passages
Page 67 - FORTUNE is like the market, where many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall ; and again, it is sometimes like Sibylla's offer, which at first offereth the commodity at full, then consumeth part and part, and still holdeth up the price...
Page 49 - IT cannot be denied, but outward accidents conduce much to fortune ; favour, opportunity, death of others, occasion fitting virtue. But chiefly, the mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands.
Page 47 - My lot might have been that of a slave, a savage, or a peasant ; nor can I reflect without pleasure on the bounty of Nature, which cast my birth in a free and civilized country, in an age of science and philosophy, in a family of honourable rank, and decently endowed with the gifts of fortune.
Page 8 - Goodness I call the habit, and goodness of nature the inclination. This, of all virtues and dignities of the mind, is the greatest, being the character of the Deity ; and without it man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing, no better than a kind of vermin.
Page 44 - ... therefore, if a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune ; for though she be blind, yet she is not invisible. The way of fortune is like the milky way in the sky ; which is a meeting, or knot of a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together : so are there a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather .'acuities and customs that make men fortunate : the Italians note some of them, such as a man would little think.
Page 13 - that all times are equally virtuous and vicious," wherein he differs from all poets, philosophers, and Christians that ever writ. It is more probable that there may be an equal quantity of virtues always in the world, but sometimes there may be a peck of it in Asia, and hardly a thimble-full in Europe.
Page 135 - Ne can the man, that moulds in ydle cell, Unto her happy mansion attaine : Before her gate High God did Sweate ordaine, And wakefull Watches ever to abide : But easy is the way and passage plaine To Pleasures pallace ; it may soone be spide, And day and night her dores to all stand open wide.
Page 95 - To pass from theological and philosophical truth to the truth of civil business, it will be acknowledged, even by those that practise it not, that clear and round dealing is the honour of man's nature, and that mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it...
Page 136 - A man that is young in years may be old in hours, if he have lost no time. But that happeneth rarely. Generally youth is like the first cogitations, not so wise as the second. For there is a youth in thoughts, as well as in ages. And yet the invention of young men is more lively than that of old; and imaginations stream into their minds better, and as it were more divinely.
Page 44 - This is well to be weighed, that boldness is ever blind ; for it seeth not dangers and inconveniences : therefore it is ill in counsel, good in execution ; so that the right use of bold persons is, that they never command in chief, but be seconds and under the direction of others ; for in counsel it is good to see dangers, and in execution not to see them except they be very great.