And let it be noted that there is no more delicate matter to take in hand, nor more dangerous to conduct, nor more doubtful in its success, than to set up as a leader in the introduction of changes. For he who innovates will have for his enemies all those who are well off under the existing order of things, and only lukewarm supporters in those who might be better off under the new. This lukewarm temper arises partly from the fear of adversaries who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who will never admit the merit of anything new, until they have seen it proved by the event. ibid.
Those cruelties we may say are well employed, if it be permitted to speak well of things evil, which are done once for all under the necessity of self-preservation, and are not afterwards persisted in, but so far as possible modified to the advantage of the governed. Ill-employed cruelties, on the other hand, are those which from small beginnings increase rather than diminish with time. They who follow the first of these methods, may, by the grace of God and man, find, as did Agathocles, that their condition is not desperate; but by no possibility can the others maintain themselves. ibid.
It is essential therefore for a prince to have learnt how to be other than good and to use, or not to use, his goodness as necessity requires. ibid. chXV
A controversy has arisen about this: whether it is better to be loved than feared, or vise versa. My view is that it is desirable to be both loved and feared; but it is difficult to achieve both and, if one of them has to be lacking, it is much safer to be feared than loved. ibid. XVI
A Prince, therefore, if he is enabled thereby to forbear from plundering his subjects, to defend himself, to escape poverty and contempt, and the necessity of becoming rapacious, ought to care little though he incur the reproach of miserliness, for this is one of those vices which enable him to reign. ibid. XVII
And when he is obliged to take the life of any one, to do so when there is a proper justification and manifest reason for it; but above all he must abstain from taking the property of others, for men forget more easily the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony. ibid.
For of men it may generally be affirmed, that they are thankless, fickle, false studious to avoid danger, greedy of gain, devoted to you while you are able to confer benefits upon them, and ready, as I said before, while danger is distant, to shed their blood, and sacrifice their property, their lives, and their children for you; but in the hour of need they turn against you. ibid.
Be it known, then, that there are two ways of contending, one in accordance with the laws, the other by force; the first of which is proper to men, the second to beasts. But since the first method is often ineffectual, it becomes necessary to resort to the second. ibid. chXVII
The prince must consider, as has been in part said before, how to avoid those things which will make him hated or contemptible; and as often as he shall have succeeded he will have fulfilled his part, and he need not fear any danger in other reproaches. ibid.
And here it is to be noted that hatred is incurred as well on account of good actions as of bad; or which reason, as I have already said, a Prince who would maintain his authority is often compelled to be other than good. For when the class, be it the people, the soldiers, or the nobles, on whom you judge it necessary to rely for your support, is corrupt, you must needs adapt yourself to its humours, and satisfy these, in which case virtuous conduct will only prejudice you. ibid. XIX
For a Prince is exposed to two dangers, from within in respect of his subjects, from without in respect of foreign powers. Against the latter he will defend himself with good arms and good allies, and if he have good arms he will always have good allies. ibid.
Kings are the slaves of history. Leo Tolstoy, War & Peace
There is a darkness in you. In all of us, probably. Beasts we keep chained. Ordinary men have to keep the chains strong, for if we let the beast loose then society will turn upon us with fiery vengeance. Kings though ... well, who is there to turn upon them? So the chains are made of straw. It is the curse of kings, Helikaon, that they can become monsters. And they invariably do. David Gemmell, Shield of Thunder
In all ages hypocrites, called priests, have put crowns on the heads of thieves, called kings. Robert G Ingersoll
The greatest slave in a kingdom is generally the king of it. Fulke Greville
No race of kings has ever presented above one man of common sense in twenty generations. Thomas Jefferson, letter to Benjamin Hawkins 4th August 1787
I was much an enemy to monarchies before I came to Europe. I am ten thousand times more so, since I have seen what they are. There is scarcely an evil known in these countries, which may not be traced to their king, as its source, nor a good, which is not derived from the small fibres of republicanism existing among them. Thomas Jefferson, letter to General Washington 2nd May 1788
All kings are foes of all the men they rule. Hortense Flexner
Kings ought never to be seen upon the stage. In the abstract, they are very disagreeable characters: it is only while living that they are ‘the best of kings’. It is their power, their splendour, it is the apprehension of the personal consequences of their favour or their hatred that dazzles the imagination and suspends the judgement of their favourites or their vassals; but death cancels the bond of allegiance and of interest; and seen AS THEY WERE, their power and their pretensions look monstrous and ridiculous. William Hazlitt, Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays
Power makes you a monarch, and all the fancy robes in the world won't do the job without it. Laurell K Hamilton, Narcissus in Chains
Man said, ‘I am tired of kings!
Sons of the robber-chiefs of yore,
They make me pay for their lust and their war;
I am the puppet, they pull the strings;
The blood of my heart is the wine they drink.
I will govern myself for awhile I think,
And see what that brings!’ Henry van Dyke, Remarks about Kings
Kings are not born: they are made by universal hallucination. George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionists
There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands. Plato
History has remembered the kings and warriors, because they destroyed; art has remembered the people, because they created. William Morris
I have dined with kings. I’ve been offered wings. And I’ve never been too impressed. Bob Dylan, Is Your Love in Vain?
A prince who gets a reputation for good nature in the first years of his reign, is laughed at in the second. Napoleon Bonaparte, letter 1807
Princes that would their people should do well
Must at themselves begin, as at the head;
For men, by their example, pattern out
Their imitations, and regard of laws:
A virtuous court a world to virtue draws. Ben Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels V iii
A prince without letters is a Pilot without eyes. All his government is groping. Ben Jonson, Discoveries, Illiteratus, Princeps
They say Princes learn no art truly, but the art of horsemanship. The reason is, the brave beast is no flatterer. He will throw a Prince as soon as his groom. ibid.
A prince, the moment he is crown’d,
Inherits every virtue sound,
As emblems of the sovereign power,
Like other baubles in the Tower:
Is generous, valiant, just, and wise,
And so continues till he dies. Jonathan Swift, On Poetry @191
Man is insatiable for power; he is infantile in his desires and, always discontented with what he has, loves only what he has not. People complain of the despotism of princes; they ought to complain of the despotism of man. Joseph de Maistre
The most part of all princes have more delight in warlike manners and feats of chivalry than in the good feats of peace. Thomas More
You can’t treat royalty like people with normal perverted desires. Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
They spoke as though these Princes are so remote from life as we know it that the smallest sign of humanity, the mere fact even that they communicated by means of speech was worth noting and proclaiming. Nancy Mitford, Love in a Cold Climate and Other Novels
Since the reign of Charles II kings have known where they stood. Monarchy by David Starkey s3e3: Rule Britannia, Channel 4 2006
There is something behind the throne greater than the King himself. William Pitt, House of Lords, 1770
The best kings desire to be in a position to be wicked, if they please, without forfeiting their mastery: political sermonisers may tell them to their hearts' content that, the people's strength being their own, their first interest is that the people should be prosperous, numerous and formidable; they are well aware that this is untrue. Their first personal interest is that the people should be weak, wretched, and unable to resist them. Jean-Jacques Rousseau