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| Niccolo Machiavelli
A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example. He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss. If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared. It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both. Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared. The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love. The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous. The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him. The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present. 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. To understand the nature of the people one must be a prince, and to understand the nature of the prince, one must be of the people. War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans. Whoever conquers a free town and does not demolish it commits a great error and may expect to be ruined himself. Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasion for it. |
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