PEOPLE in Classic Quotes

1  But the demands of a free people are hurtful to freedom, since they originate either in being oppressed, or in the fear that they are about to be so.

Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo Machiavelli
ContextHighlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER IV.

2  And, first, as touching its origin, I say, that all cities have been founded either by the people of the country in which they stand, or by strangers.

Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo Machiavelli
ContextHighlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER I.

3  When this fear is groundless, it finds its remedy in public meetings, wherein some worthy person may come forward and show the people by argument that they are deceiving themselves.

Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo Machiavelli
ContextHighlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER IV.

4  For the multitude loathing its rulers, lent itself to any who ventured, in whatever way, to attack them; when some one man speedily arose who with the aid of the people overthrew them.

Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo Machiavelli
ContextHighlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER II.

5  For though they be ignorant, the people are not therefore, as Cicero says, incapable of being taught the truth, but are readily convinced when it is told them by one in whose honesty they can trust.

Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo Machiavelli
ContextHighlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER IV.

6  In this way the tribunes of the people came to be created, after whose creation the stability of the State was much augmented, since each the three forms of government had now its due influence allowed it.

Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo Machiavelli
ContextHighlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER II.

7  The origin of cities may be said to be independent when a people, either by themselves or under some prince, are constrained by famine, pestilence, or war to leave their native land and seek a new habitation.

Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo Machiavelli
ContextHighlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER I.

8  And this was due to the Spartan kings, who, being appointed to that dignity for life, and placed in the midst of this nobility, had no stronger support to their authority than in defending the people against injustice.

Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo Machiavelli
ContextHighlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER VI.

9  This dissimulation remained undetected, and its causes concealed, while the Tarquins lived; for the nobles dreading the Tarquins, and fearing that the people, if they used them ill, might take part against them, treated them with kindness.

Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo Machiavelli
ContextHighlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER III.

10  And so telling was the effect of these charges, that Menenius, after haranguing the people and complaining to them of the calumnies circulated against him, laid down his dictatorship, and submitted himself to whatever judgment might be passed upon him.

Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo Machiavelli
ContextHighlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER V.

11  Whereupon, whether driven by necessity, or on the suggestion of some wiser man among them and to escape anarchy, the people reverted to a monarchy, from which, step by step, in the manner and for the causes already assigned, they came round once more to license.

Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo Machiavelli
ContextHighlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER II.

12  Whence it resulted that as the people neither feared nor coveted the power which they did not possess, the conflicts which might have arisen between them and the nobles were escaped, together with the causes which would have led to them; and in this way they were able to live long united.

Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo Machiavelli
ContextHighlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER VI.

13  To those set forward in a commonwealth as guardians of public freedom, no more useful or necessary authority can be given than the power to accuse, either before the people, or before some council or tribunal, those citizens who in any way have offended against the liberty of their country.

Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo Machiavelli
ContextHighlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER VII.

14  In Rome, after the expulsion of the Tarquins, it seemed as though the closest union prevailed between the senate and the commons, and that the nobles, laying aside their natural arrogance, had learned so to sympathize with the people as to have become supportable by all, even of the humblest rank.

Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo Machiavelli
ContextHighlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER III.

15  But the recollection of the tyrant and of the wrongs suffered at his hands being still fresh in the minds of the people, who therefore felt no desire to restore the monarchy, they had recourse to a popular government, which they established on such a footing that neither king nor nobles had any place in it.

Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo Machiavelli
ContextHighlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER II.

16  But of this unity in Sparta there were two chief causes: one, the fewness of its inhabitants, which allowed of their being governed by a few; the other, that by denying foreigners admission into their country, the people had less occasion to become corrupted, and never so increased in numbers as to prove troublesome to their few rulers.

Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo Machiavelli
ContextHighlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER VI.

17  Accordingly, after much uproar and confusion, and much danger of violence ensuing between the commons and the nobles, to insure the safety of the former, tribunes were created, and were invested with such station and authority as always afterwards enabled them to stand between the people and the senate, and to resist the insolence of the nobles.

Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo Machiavelli
ContextHighlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER III.