"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."
"Rome remained free for four hundred years and Sparta eight hundred, although their citizens were armed all that time; but many other states that have been disarmed have lost their liberties in less than forty years."
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Source: Niccolo Machiavelli (2017). “The Prince”, p.55, Knickerbocker Classics
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