The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.

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• Niccolo Machiavelli:

  Men are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will alw

• Niccolo Machiavelli:

  Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take venge

• Niccolo Machiavelli:

  A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. Hi

• Niccolo Machiavelli:

  Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and th

• Niccolo Machiavelli:

  Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.

• Niccolo Machiavelli:

  Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack vict

• Niccolo Machiavelli:

  Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries

• Niccolo Machiavelli:

  It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men ar

• Niccolo Machiavelli:

  War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.

• Niccolo Machiavelli:

  War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which