"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."
"The reply is, that one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to be wanting. For it may be said of men in general that they are ungrateful, voluble, dissemblers, anxious to avoid danger, and covetous of gain; as long as you benefit them, they are entirely yours; they offer you their blood, their goods, their life, and their children, as I have before said, when the necessity is remote; but when it approaches, they revolt."
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Source: The Prince. Book by Niccolo Machiavelli , Ch. 17, as translated by Luigi Ricci (1903), 1513.
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