"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."
"The one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not."
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Source: Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius. Book by Niccolò Machiavelli, trans. Allan Gilbert, book 1, chapter 18, p. 241, 1965.
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