"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."
"It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope."
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Source: Discourse upon the First Ten Books of Livy bk. 1, ch. 3 (written 1513 - 1517) (translation by Allan Gilbert)
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