# Quote — Niccolò Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy

> Titus Livius... observes, “Most wholesome is it that in affairs of great moment, supreme authority be vested in one man.” Very different, however, is the course followed by the republics and princes of our own days, who, thinking to be better served, are used to appoint several captains or commissioners to fill one command; a practice giving rise to so much confusion, that were we seeking for the causes of the overthrow of the French and Italian armies in recent times, we should find this to be the most active of any.
>
> Rightly, therefore, may we conclude that in sending forth an army upon service, it is wiser to entrust it to one man of ordinary prudence, than to two of great parts but with a divided command.

- Author: [Niccolò Machiavelli](https://www.leafyquotes.com/niccolo-machiavelli.md)
- Book: [Discourses on Livy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/niccolo-machiavelli/discourses-on-livy.md)
- Original (it): Voglio di nuovo addurre, in confermazione di questo, parole di Tito Livio; il quale, referendo come, essendo mandato da' Romani contro agli Equi Quinzio ed Agrippa suo collega, Agrippa volle che tutta l'amministrazione della guerra fosse appresso a Quinzio, e' dice: «Saluberrimum in administratione magnarum rerum est, summam imperii apud unum esse». Il che è contrario a quello che oggi fanno queste nostre republiche e principi di mandare ne' luoghi, per amministrargli meglio, più d'uno commessario e più d'uno capo: il che fa una inestimabile confusione. E se si cercassi le cagioni della rovina degli eserciti italiani e franciosi ne' nostri tempi, si troveria la potissima essere stata questa. E puossi conchiudere veramente, come egli è meglio mandare in una ispedizione uno uomo solo di comunale prudenzia, che due valentissimi uomini insieme con la medesima autorità.
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Niccol%C3%B2_Machiavelli#Discourses_on_Livy_(1517)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/niccolo-machiavelli/discourses-on-livy/titus-livius-observes

## More from this book

> Cunning and deceit will every time serve a man better than force to rise from a base condition to great fortune.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/niccolo-machiavelli/discourses-on-livy/cunning-and-deceit.md)

> 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. For whenever men are not obliged to fight from necessity, they fight from ambition; which is so powerful in human breasts, that it never leaves them no matter to what rank they rise. The reason is that nature has so created men that they are able to desire everything but are not able to attain everything: so that the desire being always greater than the acquisition, there results discontent with the possession and little satisfaction to themselves from it. From this arises the changes in their fortunes; for as men desire, some to have more, some in fear of losing their acquisition, there ensues enmity and war, from which results the ruin of that province and the elevation of another.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/niccolo-machiavelli/discourses-on-livy/it-was-the.md)

> It is not titles that make men illustrious, but men who make titles illustrious.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/niccolo-machiavelli/discourses-on-livy/it-is-not.md)