"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."
"Men are less hesitant about harming someone who makes himself loved than one who makes himself feared because love is held together by a chain of obligation which, since men are wretched creatures, is broken on every occasion in which their own interests are concerned; but fear is sustained by dread of punishment which will never abandon you."
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Source: Niccolo Machiavelli (2017). “The Prince”, p.56, Knickerbocker Classics
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