Cesare Borgia Quotes

“One enemy at the time.”
― Sarah Dunant, Blood & Beauty

“God is the ultimate fantasy of the Superiority Principle. Milton’s Lucifer, the ultimate individual, the most romantic figure in all of literature, is the Superiority Principle made flesh. Lord Byron loved him. Cesare Borgia came close. Caesar or nothing, as he liked to say. Every individual loves the Prince of Darkness! As Milton declared, ‘To reign is worth ambition though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n.’ That is the philosophy of the individual, the motto of the Superman.”
― Mark Romel

“(About Cesare Borgia) What cruelties were not the result of his? Who could count all his crimes? Such was the man that Machiavel prefers to all the great geniuses of his time, and to the heroes of antiquity, and of which he finds the life and action make a good example for those that fortune favors.”
― Frederick the Great, Anti-Machiavel

“I'm certain that the Cesare Borgia who existed was banal and stupid. He must have been, because to exist is always stupid and banal.”
― Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet