"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."
"If someone puts up the argument that King Louis gave the Romagna to Pope Alexander, and the kingdom of Naples to Spain, in order to avoid a war, I would answer as I did before: that you should never let things get out of hand in order to avoid war. You don't avoid such a war, you merely postpone it, to your own disadvantage."
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Source: The Prince. Book by Niccolò Machiavelli, ch. 3, as translated by RM Adams, 1513.
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