1 And if there is to be no distinction in respect of blood, nothing can be pleaded for a distinction in respect of age.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER LX. 2 These qualities we cannot refer wholly to the blood, for that must change as a result of repeated intermarriages, but must ascribe rather to the different training and education given in different families.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 3: CHAPTER XLVI. 3 And, truly, cities and provinces like this, avenge themselves on their conquerors without blood or blow; since by infecting them with their own evil customs they prepare them for defeat at the hands of any assailant.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 2: CHAPTER XIX. 4 But where advantage is to be gained thereby, blood will always flow, and neither the desire to shed it, nor causes for shedding it will ever be wanting, as I have fully shown when discussing this subject in another treatise.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 3: CHAPTER XIX. 5 The concession as to blood, however, was made under necessity, and as I have observed on another occasion, the same necessity which obtained in Rome, will be found to obtain in every other city which desires to achieve the results which Rome achieved.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER LX. 6 And to escape hatred, a prince has chiefly to guard against tampering with the property of any of his subjects; for where nothing is to be gained by it, no prince will desire to shed blood, unless, as seldom happens, constrained to do so by necessity.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 3: CHAPTER XIX. 7 Against this scourge, the nobles, lacking other defence, set themselves to favour Sylla, and placing him at the head of their faction, entered on the civil wars; wherein, after much blood had been spilt, and after many changes of fortune, they got the better of their adversaries.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER XXXVII. 8 Wherefore, unless things be put on a sound footing by some one ruler who lives to a very advanced age, or by two virtuous rulers succeeding one another, the city upon their death at once falls back into ruin; or, if it be preserved, must be so by incurring great risks, and at the cost of much blood.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER XVII. 9 For joining with herself many States throughout Italy as her companions, who in most respects lived with her on a footing of equality, while, as has been noted, always reserving to herself the seat of empire and the titular command, it came about that these States, without being aware of it, by their own efforts, and with their own blood, wrought out their own enslavement.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 2: CHAPTER IV. 10 It is seen in the course of the Roman history that, after the consulship was thrown open to the commons, the republic conceded this dignity to all its citizens, without distinction either of age or blood; nay, that in this matter respect for age was never made a ground for preference among the Romans, whose constant aim it was to discover excellence whether existing in old or young.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER LX. 11 Of such stratagems and frauds we have an instance in the case of Pisistratus the Athenian, who after defeating the Megarians and thereby gaining the favour of his fellow-citizens, showed himself to them one morning covered with wounds and blood, declaring that he had been thus outraged through the jealousy of the nobles, and asking that he might have an armed guard assigned for his protection.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo MachiavelliContextHighlight In BOOK 3: CHAPTER VI.