"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."
"I hold strongly to this: that it is better to be impetuous than circumspect; because fortune is a woman and if she is to be submissive it is necessary to beat and coerce her."
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Source: Niccolo Machiavelli, Quentin Skinner, Russell Price (1988). “Machiavelli: The Prince”, p.61, Cambridge University Press
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