"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."
"It is necessary that the prince should know how to color his nature well, and how to be a hypocrite and dissembler. For men are so simple, and yield so much to immediate necessity, that the deceiver will never lack dupes."
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Source: Niccolo Machiavelli (2017). “The Prince”, p.12, Knickerbocker Classics
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