Dis-inspirations?

This has to be the most bizarre thing I've ever seen used as an inspirational quote online. 

At first this seems like just another Yeah, yeah, think big and be big -- I heard that from Fred Flintstone. But it got worse the more I thought about it. 

First of all, there's no proof that this quote comes from Machiavelli, although Forbes notes that it's often attributed to him. I looked through Bartlett's and the Oxford quotation book and checked in with Quote Investigator and all of Machiavelli's works on Project Gutenberg but had no luck finding it attributed to him or anyone else. Granted, Machiavelli wrote in Italian, and that makes it harder to track down an English translation. But my search under subject words as well as authors convinced me that whoever said this first, it was probably not everyone's favorite Italian diplomat. 

Second, do we really want to draw spiritual growth from a man like Niccolo Machiavelli? He wasn't exactly writing Chicken Soup for the Soul. His most famous book, The Prince, was the birth of Realpolitik as we know it -- basically, how to shiv the right people at the right time for coldblooded profit. The Rules for Radicals of its day. For example, he tells this inspiring tale of Old Syracuse: 

Agathocles, the Sicilian, became King of Syracuse not only from a private but from a low and abject position. This man, the son of a potter, through all the changes in his fortunes always led an infamous life. Nevertheless, he accompanied his infamies with so much ability of mind and body that, having devoted himself to the military profession, he rose through its ranks to be Praetor of Syracuse. Being established in that position, and having deliberately resolved to make himself prince and to seize by violence, without obligation to others, that which had been conceded to him by assent, he came to an understanding for this purpose with Amilcar, the Carthaginian, who, with his army, was fighting in Sicily. One morning he assembled the people and the senate of Syracuse, as if he had to discuss with them things relating to the Republic, and at a given signal the soldiers killed all the senators and the richest of the people; these dead, he seized and held the princedom of that city without any civil commotion. 

Mind you, he's not telling us about Agathocles in the hope that we will emulate him (unlike Radicals author Saul Alinsky, whose book is a how-to guide). Niccolo just wants to tell us the practical problems facing one who usurps power by force. 

Hence it is to be remarked that, in seizing a state, the usurper ought to examine closely into all those injuries which it is necessary for him to inflict, and to do them all at one stroke so as not to have to repeat them daily; and thus by not unsettling men he will be able to reassure them, and win them to himself by benefits. He who does otherwise, either from timidity or evil advice, is always compelled to keep the knife in his hand; neither can he rely on his subjects, nor can they attach themselves to him, owing to their continued and repeated wrongs. For injuries ought to be done all at one time, so that, being tasted less, they offend less; benefits ought to be given little by little, so that the flavour of them may last longer.

So kill everyone who might oppose you all at once and start raiding the treasury over time to make new friends. There's a big plan for you. Small plans don't stir the soul! 

Whether Niccolo could be considered a force for evil or just a "straight shooter, telling it like it is," may be argued. Nowadays it would be the latter, but in the past there was no question that he was a bad man. 

Older readers, or readers of older works, might recall that one of the names for the devil is Old Nick. And writers like Samuel Butler in his satirical poem Hudibras made the connection clear:

Nick Machiavel had ne'er a trick,

Though he gave his name to our Old Nick.

The devil had a big plan too, as I recall. 

So I just found it astonishing that inspirational memes for yoga moms would include a quote from a man historically considered a tricky bastard in the non-birth sense of the world. Then again, if you've ever had to deal with yoga moms in a homeowners' association, maybe you'd think it's not really such a reach.