"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."
"The people resemble a wild beast, which, naturally fierce and accustomed to live in the woods, has been brought up, as it were, in a prison and in servitude, and having by accident got its liberty, not being accustomed to search for its food, and not knowing where to conceal itself, easily becomes the prey of the first who seeks to incarcerate it again."
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Source: Discourses on Livy by Niccolò Machiavelli, book 1, ch. 16, 1517.
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