"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."
"In the same manner, having been reduced by disorder, and sunk to their utmost state of depression, unable to descend lower, they, of necessity, reascend; and thus from good they gradually decline to evil, and from evil again return to good. The reason is, that valor produces peace; peace, repose; repose, disorder; disorder, ruin; so from disorder order springs; from order virtue, and from this, glory and good fortune."
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Source: Florentine Histories by Niccolò Machiavelli, book V, chapter 1, 1526.
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