"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."
"As the observance of divine institutions is the cause of the greatness of republics, so the disregard of them produces their ruin; for where the fear of God is wanting, there the country will come to ruin, unless it be sustained the fear of the prince, which temporarily supply the want of religion."
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Source: Discourses on Livy by Niccolò Machiavelli, book 2, ch. 3, translation by Mansfield and Tarcov, 1517.
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