Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Titles do not honor people; people honor titles through their own merit and actions.
In plain terms
A title isn't special unless the person holding it is special.
What can you take from it?
Earn your title through action, do not rely on it for respect.

Where it applies

  • leadership
  • career
  • public life

Putting it to work

  • act with integrity
  • prove merit

Questions to consider

  • What gives a title value?
  • Do you respect the title or the person?

Another view

Titles often provide necessary authority regardless of merit.

More from Niccolo Machiavelli

  1. Men sooner forget being robbed of their fathers than of their patrimony.

    Permalink to quote #42
  2. War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.

    Permalink to quote #44
  3. A leader ought to inspire fear in such a way that, if he does not win love, he avoids hatred.

    Permalink to quote #41

Related quotes

  1. More glorious to merit a sceptre than to possess one.

    Napoleon BonaparteNapoleon Bonaparte quote #29
  2. The winning of honor, is but the revealing of a man's virtue and worth, without disadvantage.

    Francis BaconFrancis Bacon quote #140
  3. The melancholy thing in our public life is the insane desire to get higher.

    Rutherford B. HayesRutherford B. Hayes quote #1