Niccolò Machiavelli — Profile, Rankings & Fame Trend

Summary

Updated 2026-07-17

His name became shorthand for ruthless statecraft — the Florentine who wrote that rulers must be willing to do evil when necessity demands it, turning political philosophy from ideals to cold mechanics.

Biography

About

Niccolò Machiavelli served as secretary to Florence's second chancery from 1498 to 1512, handling diplomatic and military affairs while the Medici were out of power. When the Medici retook Florence in 1512, he was expelled from office, mistakenly suspected of treason, and sent into exile. A year later he turned to writing. Around 1513 he drafted The Prince, a treatise advising that successful rulers must engage in unsavory acts — even killing political enemies — when political necessity requires it, a break from classical thought that made his work controversial from the moment it was publishe…

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In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli

said1517

Men never do good unless necessity drives them to it; but when they are free to choose and can do just as they please, confusion and disorder become rampant.

— Book 1, Ch. 3 (as translated by LJ Walker and B Crick)

Niccolò Machiavelli

said1517

So in all human affairs one notices, if one examines them closely, that it is impossible to remove one inconvenience without another emerging.

— Book 1, Ch. 6 (as translated by LJ Walker and B Crick)

Niccolò Machiavelli

said1517

It was the verdict of ancient writers that men afflict themselves in evil and weary themselves in the good, and that the same effects result from both of these passions.

— Book 1, Ch. 37 Variant: Nature has so contrived that to men, though all things are objects of desire, not all things are attainable; so

Niccolò Machiavelli

said10 Dec 1513

When evening comes, I return home and enter my study; on the threshold I take off my workday clothes, covered with mud and dirt, and put on the garments of court and palace.

— Letter to Francesco Vettori (10 December 1513), as translated by James Atkinson, in Prince Machiavelli (1976), p. 19

Niccolò Machiavelli

said1513