From Renaissance Florence to today’s global stage, Guicciardini’s shrewd maxims show that medieval political wisdom never goes out of style.
Few voices from the Middle Ages speak to us as directly as Francesco Guicciardini’s. Born in Florence in 1483, he rose to prominence as a statesman and diplomat in a world of feuding city-states, papal power plays, and constant betrayals. Unlike many political thinkers of his time, Guicciardini did not deal in ideals—he dealt in survival.
His Ricordi politici e civili (“Political and Civil Maxims”) is a collection of sharp reflections drawn from decades in government. These are not lofty meditations on virtue, but hard-nosed lessons in how people really act: selfishly, calculatingly, and often deceptively. At times sly, at times cold, Guicciardini’s advice has the ring of lived experience.
Statue of Francesco Guicciardini, in Florence, in Galleria degli Uffizi. Wikimedia Commons
What makes his words so compelling is their staying power. Written for the treacherous politics of late medieval Italy, they remain strikingly relevant in today’s world of shifting alliances and power struggles. Whether navigating the intrigues of Florence or the rivalries of global geopolitics, Guicciardini’s wisdom still cuts close to the bone.
Guicciardini wrote dozens of maxims. Here are 20 of our favourites:
On Power and Ambition
1. No One Gives Up Power Willingly
Do not believe those who say they have voluntarily relinquished power and position for love of peace and quiet. Nearly always, their reason was either levity or necessity. Experience shows that, as soon as they are offered a chance to return to the former life, they leave behind their much vaunted peace and quiet, and seize it with the same fury that fire seizes dry or oily things.
2. The Double Edge of Ambition
Ambition is not a reprehensible quality, nor are ambitious men to be censured, if they seek glory through honorable and honest means. In fact, it is they who produce great and excellent works. Those who lack this passion are cold spirits, inclined more toward laziness than activity. But ambition is pernicious and detestable when it has as its sole end power, as is generally the case with princes. And when they make it their goal, they will level conscience, honor, humanity, and everything else to attain it.
3. Success Must Be Staged
If you are involved in important affairs or are seeking power, you must always hide your failures and exaggerate your successes. It is a form of swindling and very much against my nature. But, since your fate more often depends upon the opinion of others rather than on facts, it is a good idea to create the impression that things are going well. The opposite reputation will be harmful to you.
4. Be Seen to Be Chosen
If you live at court or are the follower of a great prince, and you wish to be employed by him in his affairs, you must try to be constantly before his eyes. For matters will arise suddenly, which he will commit to someone in sight or at hand; whereas if he had to look or wait for you, the chance would be lost. And to lose an opportunity, no matter how small, often means losing the introduction and access to great things.
On Rulers and Government
5. Loyalty Has Limits
If princes take little account of their servants and scorn them or push them aside for the slightest reason whenever they please, why should a lord be offended or complain when his ministers—provided they do not fall short of their debts of loyalty and honor—leave him or take up with those parties that better serve their interests?
6. Princes Follow Habit, Not Reason
In affairs of state, you should guide yourself not so much by what reason demonstrates a prince ought to do as by what he will most likely do, according to his nature or habits. Princes will often do what they please or what they know, and not what they should. If you guide yourself by any rule other than this, you will get into very great trouble.
7. Patience Is Power
A ruler, or someone endowed with executive power, must be very careful not to show hatred or take vengeance against anyone who offends him personally. For the use of the public arm against private offenses will subject him to heavy censure. Let him be patient and mark time. Inevitably he will have an opportunity to achieve the same effect justly and without a note of rancor.
8. Don’t Gamble with Government
If the citizens of a republic are ruled by a government which—despite some defects—is tolerable, they should never try to change it for a better one, for it will nearly always get worse. The reason is that he who makes the change will not have the power to fashion the new government precisely according to his designs and thoughts.
9. The People Cannot See Past Their Ignorance
If the harmful results of bad government were visible in detail, those who do not know how to govern would either try to learn or would willingly relinquish the government to able men. But the trouble is that men, and especially the common people, are too ignorant to understand the cause of disorders, and thus do not attribute them to the mistake that brought them about. Not recognizing how much harm is caused by unskilled leaders, they persevere in the error of doing themselves what they do not understand, or of letting themselves be governed by incompetents. From that is often born the ultimate ruin of a city.
10. Change Is Slower Than You Think
If you see a city beginning to decline, a government changing, a new empire expanding, or any such phenomenon—and these things are sometimes quite clearly visible to us—be careful not to misjudge the time they will take. By their very nature, and because of various obstacles, such movements are much slower than most men imagine. And to be mistaken in these matters can be very harmful to you. Be very careful, for it is a step on which people often stumble. The same is true even of private and personal affairs; but much more so of public and general matters, for these, because of their bulk, move much more slowly and are subject to many more accidents.
On Human Nature
11. Gratitude Fades Quickly
Nothing is more fleeting than the memory of benefits received. Therefore, rely more on those whose circumstances do not permit them to fail you than on those whom you have favored. For often they will not remember the favors, or they will suppose them to have been smaller than they were, or they will even claim that you did them almost because you were obliged.
12. Words Trump Reality
Men ought to pay a great deal more attention to substance and realities than to ceremonies. And yet it is incredible how easily people fall for kind, soft words. The reason is that everyone thinks he merits being highly esteemed, and therefore will be indignant if he thinks you are mindless of what he is sure he deserves.
13. Hope or Fear?
Men have different temperaments. Some are so full of hope that they count as certain what they do not yet have; others are so fearful that they do not count on anything not yet in their hands. I am closer to the second than the first. And men of my temperament will be less often deceived but will live with greater torment.
14. The Self-Interest of Liberty
Don’t believe those who so fervently preach liberty. Nearly all of them—probably every single one of them—has his own particular interests in mind. Experience proves beyond any doubt that if they thought they would be better off under an absolute government, they would rush into it as fast as they could.
15. Dangers Are Less Than They Appear
A man who governs a state must not be frightened by the appearance of dangers, though they seem great, close, and imminent. For, as the proverb says, the devil is not as ugly as he is made out to be. Often dangers will evaporate by chance. And even if something bad should happen, you will always find some remedy or alleviation within the situation itself. Ponder this ricordo well, for it is a matter of daily life.
On Appearances and Skills
16. Theory Is Nothing Without Practice
How different theory is from practice! So many people understand things well but either do not remember or do not know how to put them into practice! The knowledge of such men is useless. It is like having a treasure stored in a chest without ever being able to take it out.
17. The Value of Appearances
When I was young, I used to scoff at knowing how to play, dance, and sing, and at other such frivolities. I even made light of good penmanship, knowing how to ride, to dress well, and all those things that seem more decorative than substantial in a man. But later, I wished I had not done so. For although it is not wise to spend too much time cultivating the young toward the perfection of these arts, I have nevertheless seen from experience that these ornaments and accomplishments lend dignity and reputation even to men of good rank. It may even be said that whoever lacks them lacks something important. Moreover, skill in this sort of entertainment opens the way to the favor of princes, and sometimes becomes the beginning or the reason for great profit and high honors. For the world and princes are no longer made as they should be, but as they are.
On Fortune and Mortality
18. Don’t Sacrifice Today for Tomorrow’s Guess
The future is so deceptive and subject to so many accidents, that very often even the wisest of men is fooled when he tries to predict it. If you look very closely at his prognostications, especially when they concern details—for often the general outcome is easier to guess—you will see little difference between them and the guesses of those who are considered less wise. Therefore, to give up a present good for fear of a future evil is, most of the time, madness—unless the evil is very certain, very near, or very great compared to the good. Otherwise, quite often a groundless fear will cause you to lose a good thing you could have kept.
19. The Miracle of Old Age
When I consider the infinite ways in which human life is subject to accident, sickness, chance, and violence, and when I consider how many things must combine during the year to produce a good harvest, nothing surprises me more than to see an old man, a good year.
20. All States Must Die
All cities, all states, all reigns are mortal. Everything, either by nature or by accident, ends at some time. And so a citizen who is living in the final stage of his country’s existence should not feel as sorry for his country as he should for himself. What happened to his country was inevitable; but to be born at a time when such a disaster had to happen was his misfortune.
Whether you live under a prince or a president, Guicciardini’s words still strike with unsettling clarity. His maxims remind us that power is fragile, ambition is double-edged, human nature is stubborn, appearances deceive, and even the mightiest states must one day fall. Written in the age of city-states and shifting alliances, his lessons continue to resonate in our own world of politics and geopolitics. To read him is to recognise that, across five centuries, the game of power has changed far less than we might wish.
Francesco Guicciardini’s Maxims and reflections of a Renaissance statesman (Ricordi) was translated by Mario Domandi in 1965. Click here to buy a copy from Amazon.com
From Renaissance Florence to today’s global stage, Guicciardini’s shrewd maxims show that medieval political wisdom never goes out of style.
Few voices from the Middle Ages speak to us as directly as Francesco Guicciardini’s. Born in Florence in 1483, he rose to prominence as a statesman and diplomat in a world of feuding city-states, papal power plays, and constant betrayals. Unlike many political thinkers of his time, Guicciardini did not deal in ideals—he dealt in survival.
His Ricordi politici e civili (“Political and Civil Maxims”) is a collection of sharp reflections drawn from decades in government. These are not lofty meditations on virtue, but hard-nosed lessons in how people really act: selfishly, calculatingly, and often deceptively. At times sly, at times cold, Guicciardini’s advice has the ring of lived experience.
What makes his words so compelling is their staying power. Written for the treacherous politics of late medieval Italy, they remain strikingly relevant in today’s world of shifting alliances and power struggles. Whether navigating the intrigues of Florence or the rivalries of global geopolitics, Guicciardini’s wisdom still cuts close to the bone.
Guicciardini wrote dozens of maxims. Here are 20 of our favourites:
On Power and Ambition
1. No One Gives Up Power Willingly
Do not believe those who say they have voluntarily relinquished power and position for love of peace and quiet. Nearly always, their reason was either levity or necessity. Experience shows that, as soon as they are offered a chance to return to the former life, they leave behind their much vaunted peace and quiet, and seize it with the same fury that fire seizes dry or oily things.
2. The Double Edge of Ambition
Ambition is not a reprehensible quality, nor are ambitious men to be censured, if they seek glory through honorable and honest means. In fact, it is they who produce great and excellent works. Those who lack this passion are cold spirits, inclined more toward laziness than activity. But ambition is pernicious and detestable when it has as its sole end power, as is generally the case with princes. And when they make it their goal, they will level conscience, honor, humanity, and everything else to attain it.
3. Success Must Be Staged
If you are involved in important affairs or are seeking power, you must always hide your failures and exaggerate your successes. It is a form of swindling and very much against my nature. But, since your fate more often depends upon the opinion of others rather than on facts, it is a good idea to create the impression that things are going well. The opposite reputation will be harmful to you.
4. Be Seen to Be Chosen
If you live at court or are the follower of a great prince, and you wish to be employed by him in his affairs, you must try to be constantly before his eyes. For matters will arise suddenly, which he will commit to someone in sight or at hand; whereas if he had to look or wait for you, the chance would be lost. And to lose an opportunity, no matter how small, often means losing the introduction and access to great things.
On Rulers and Government
5. Loyalty Has Limits
If princes take little account of their servants and scorn them or push them aside for the slightest reason whenever they please, why should a lord be offended or complain when his ministers—provided they do not fall short of their debts of loyalty and honor—leave him or take up with those parties that better serve their interests?
6. Princes Follow Habit, Not Reason
In affairs of state, you should guide yourself not so much by what reason demonstrates a prince ought to do as by what he will most likely do, according to his nature or habits. Princes will often do what they please or what they know, and not what they should. If you guide yourself by any rule other than this, you will get into very great trouble.
7. Patience Is Power
A ruler, or someone endowed with executive power, must be very careful not to show hatred or take vengeance against anyone who offends him personally. For the use of the public arm against private offenses will subject him to heavy censure. Let him be patient and mark time. Inevitably he will have an opportunity to achieve the same effect justly and without a note of rancor.
8. Don’t Gamble with Government
If the citizens of a republic are ruled by a government which—despite some defects—is tolerable, they should never try to change it for a better one, for it will nearly always get worse. The reason is that he who makes the change will not have the power to fashion the new government precisely according to his designs and thoughts.
9. The People Cannot See Past Their Ignorance
If the harmful results of bad government were visible in detail, those who do not know how to govern would either try to learn or would willingly relinquish the government to able men. But the trouble is that men, and especially the common people, are too ignorant to understand the cause of disorders, and thus do not attribute them to the mistake that brought them about. Not recognizing how much harm is caused by unskilled leaders, they persevere in the error of doing themselves what they do not understand, or of letting themselves be governed by incompetents. From that is often born the ultimate ruin of a city.
10. Change Is Slower Than You Think
If you see a city beginning to decline, a government changing, a new empire expanding, or any such phenomenon—and these things are sometimes quite clearly visible to us—be careful not to misjudge the time they will take. By their very nature, and because of various obstacles, such movements are much slower than most men imagine. And to be mistaken in these matters can be very harmful to you. Be very careful, for it is a step on which people often stumble. The same is true even of private and personal affairs; but much more so of public and general matters, for these, because of their bulk, move much more slowly and are subject to many more accidents.
On Human Nature
11. Gratitude Fades Quickly
Nothing is more fleeting than the memory of benefits received. Therefore, rely more on those whose circumstances do not permit them to fail you than on those whom you have favored. For often they will not remember the favors, or they will suppose them to have been smaller than they were, or they will even claim that you did them almost because you were obliged.
12. Words Trump Reality
Men ought to pay a great deal more attention to substance and realities than to ceremonies. And yet it is incredible how easily people fall for kind, soft words. The reason is that everyone thinks he merits being highly esteemed, and therefore will be indignant if he thinks you are mindless of what he is sure he deserves.
13. Hope or Fear?
Men have different temperaments. Some are so full of hope that they count as certain what they do not yet have; others are so fearful that they do not count on anything not yet in their hands. I am closer to the second than the first. And men of my temperament will be less often deceived but will live with greater torment.
14. The Self-Interest of Liberty
Don’t believe those who so fervently preach liberty. Nearly all of them—probably every single one of them—has his own particular interests in mind. Experience proves beyond any doubt that if they thought they would be better off under an absolute government, they would rush into it as fast as they could.
15. Dangers Are Less Than They Appear
A man who governs a state must not be frightened by the appearance of dangers, though they seem great, close, and imminent. For, as the proverb says, the devil is not as ugly as he is made out to be. Often dangers will evaporate by chance. And even if something bad should happen, you will always find some remedy or alleviation within the situation itself. Ponder this ricordo well, for it is a matter of daily life.
On Appearances and Skills
16. Theory Is Nothing Without Practice
How different theory is from practice! So many people understand things well but either do not remember or do not know how to put them into practice! The knowledge of such men is useless. It is like having a treasure stored in a chest without ever being able to take it out.
17. The Value of Appearances
When I was young, I used to scoff at knowing how to play, dance, and sing, and at other such frivolities. I even made light of good penmanship, knowing how to ride, to dress well, and all those things that seem more decorative than substantial in a man. But later, I wished I had not done so. For although it is not wise to spend too much time cultivating the young toward the perfection of these arts, I have nevertheless seen from experience that these ornaments and accomplishments lend dignity and reputation even to men of good rank. It may even be said that whoever lacks them lacks something important. Moreover, skill in this sort of entertainment opens the way to the favor of princes, and sometimes becomes the beginning or the reason for great profit and high honors. For the world and princes are no longer made as they should be, but as they are.
On Fortune and Mortality
18. Don’t Sacrifice Today for Tomorrow’s Guess
The future is so deceptive and subject to so many accidents, that very often even the wisest of men is fooled when he tries to predict it. If you look very closely at his prognostications, especially when they concern details—for often the general outcome is easier to guess—you will see little difference between them and the guesses of those who are considered less wise. Therefore, to give up a present good for fear of a future evil is, most of the time, madness—unless the evil is very certain, very near, or very great compared to the good. Otherwise, quite often a groundless fear will cause you to lose a good thing you could have kept.
19. The Miracle of Old Age
When I consider the infinite ways in which human life is subject to accident, sickness, chance, and violence, and when I consider how many things must combine during the year to produce a good harvest, nothing surprises me more than to see an old man, a good year.
20. All States Must Die
All cities, all states, all reigns are mortal. Everything, either by nature or by accident, ends at some time. And so a citizen who is living in the final stage of his country’s existence should not feel as sorry for his country as he should for himself. What happened to his country was inevitable; but to be born at a time when such a disaster had to happen was his misfortune.
Whether you live under a prince or a president, Guicciardini’s words still strike with unsettling clarity. His maxims remind us that power is fragile, ambition is double-edged, human nature is stubborn, appearances deceive, and even the mightiest states must one day fall. Written in the age of city-states and shifting alliances, his lessons continue to resonate in our own world of politics and geopolitics. To read him is to recognise that, across five centuries, the game of power has changed far less than we might wish.
Francesco Guicciardini’s Maxims and reflections of a Renaissance statesman (Ricordi) was translated by Mario Domandi in 1965. Click here to buy a copy from Amazon.com
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