Wikiquote files this line in its Misattributed section for Machiavelli and identifies it as Newt Gingrich’s, first appearing in a Los Angeles Times article in 1991. Machiavelli, who wrote in Italian and died in 1527, did not write it — and the sentiment runs against The Prince, which treats overturning an existing order as the most dangerous thing a ruler can attempt.
“I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.” Newt Gingrich, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, 25 August 1991. Commonly misattributed to Niccolò Machiavelli, who never wrote it. Via Quotle.info
⚠ The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Niccolò Machiavelli. Use the credit shown above instead.
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In context
Evoking the world of Newt Gingrich — U.S. Representative from Georgia 1979–1999 · House Minority Whip in 1991 · Speaker of the House 1995–1999. Theme: "I am not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Minimalist
Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "I am not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Provenance
The documented source
Popularly credited to
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527)
Actually said by
Newt Gingrich, then House Minority Whip
Documented in
Los Angeles Times, 25 August 1991
In Machiavelli
Absent — “status quo” does not occur in W. K. Marriott’s translation of The Prince
“I’m not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it,” he says.
Los Angeles Times, 25 Aug 1991
As transcribed from the 25 August 1991 Los Angeles Times article by Don MacDonald ↗; “he” is Newt Gingrich. The original article page is no longer live on the LA Times site, so this transcription and Wikiquote’s citation ↗ are the documentation we can show.
Wikiquote’s Machiavelli page ↗ lists “I am not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it” in its Misattributed section, describing it as a quote by Newt Gingrich, first appearing in an article in the Los Angeles Times in 1991.
Don MacDonald’s 2011 post ↗ identifies that article as the origin “as near as I can tell,” dates it 25 August 1991, quotes the sentence, and notes that the phrasing including the semicolon matches the version circulating under Machiavelli’s name.
Ian Chadwick’s Machiavellian Misquotes ↗, an appendix to his book on Machiavelli, independently states that Machiavelli did not write it and that it comes from a 1991 LA Times interview with Gingrich.
The only documented appearance of this sentence is a Los Angeles Times article of 25 August 1991, which is well after the 1931 U.S. public-domain cutoff and remains in copyright to the newspaper. Machiavelli’s own works and W. K. Marriott’s 1908 translation of The Prince are public domain — but this line is in neither of them, so no public-domain status attaches to it.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
How a 1991 newspaper line became a Renaissance aphorism
This is a clean case: the quote has a documented modern speaker, and the transfer to Machiavelli left fingerprints — including an unchanged semicolon.
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Quote databasesNiccolò Machiavelli Misattributed
Goodreads, BrainyQuote and QuoteFancy all carry the line under Machiavelli’s name with no work, chapter, translator or date attached. Goodreads’ own page ↗ notes that its quotes are added by the community and are not verified.
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Documented originNewt Gingrich Real speaker
Wikiquote ↗ records the line as Gingrich’s, first appearing in a Los Angeles Times article in 1991. Don MacDonald ↗ located that article, dated 25 August 1991, and pointed out that the punctuation of the internet version — semicolon included — matches the newspaper sentence exactly.
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The sentimentNiccolò Machiavelli Backwards
The Prince argues the opposite emphasis. Chapter VI warns that “there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things” (Marriott translation ↗) — a warning about the cost of upheaval, not an appetite for it.
✓The line belongs to a 20th-century American politician, not a 16th-century Florentine official: Wikiquote lists it under Misattributed ↗ and credits Newt Gingrich, first printed in the Los Angeles Times in 1991.
Context
Why this one sticks
The quote works as a Machiavelli quote because of what we think Machiavelli was: a cold-eyed disruptor who taught princes to break things. The actual Machiavelli was a career civil servant — secretary of the second chancery of Florence from 1498 to 1512 — who spent his exile writing manuals on how rulers take power and keep it, and on how ruinous upheaval usually is. The Prince, drafted around 1513 and not published until 1532, five years after his death, opens its most famous warning by saying there is nothing more difficult or perilous than taking the lead in introducing a new order of things. That is a caution, not a battle cry.
The man who actually said it was in the business of overthrowing something specific. In 1991 Newt Gingrich was House Minority Whip, four years out from the speakership he would take in January 1995. Strip his name off and the sentence loses its target and becomes a general-purpose slogan — which is precisely the condition in which a line drifts onto a Renaissance philosopher.
Machiavelli’s warning about a “new order of things” is about how dangerous change is. The fake quote makes him its cheerleader.
The wording drifts too
Even the fake has variants. Wikiquote’s misattributed entry reads “I am not interested in preserving the status quo…”, while the wording transcribed from the 1991 article — and the form Goodreads and QuoteFancy carry — is the contracted “I’m not…”. The semicolon survives every version, which is part of what let researchers match the internet meme back to the newspaper sentence.
There is also a vocabulary problem. “Status quo” is a Latin tag that entered English political usage centuries after Machiavelli, who wrote in Italian; it appears nowhere in W. K. Marriott’s standard 1908 English translation of The Prince.
Explore
Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
b. 1943 · U.S. Representative from Georgia 1979–1999 · House Minority Whip in 1991 · Speaker of the House 1995–1999
Newton Leroy Gingrich, born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on 17 June 1943, represented Georgia in the U.S. House from 1979 to 1999. He became House Minority Whip in March 1989 — the post he held when the Los Angeles Times quoted him in 1991 — and served as Speaker of the House from January 1995 to January 1999. The line is characteristic of the insurgent, anti-institutional posture that defined his rise, which is exactly why it travels so well once someone swaps in a more glamorous name.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Best available documentation
Newt Gingrich, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, August 25, 1991; recorded as misattributed to Machiavelli in "Niccolò Machiavelli," Wikiquote, "Misattributed" section, https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Niccolò_Machiavelli.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘I am not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it’?” Last verified 3 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/i-am-not-interested-in-preserving-the-status-quo-i-want-to/