"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."
"Republics have a longer life and enjoy better fortune than principalities, because they can profit by their greater internal diversity. They are the better able to meet emergencies."
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Source: Discourses on Livy by Niccolò Machiavelli, book 2, ch. 29, as translated by LJ Walker and B Crick, 1517.
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