"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."
"Therefore it is unnecessary for a prince to have all the good qualities I have enumerated, but it is very necessary to appear to have them. And I shall dare to say this also, that to have them and always to observe them is injurious, and that to appear to have them is useful; to appear merciful, faithful, humane, religious, upright, and to be so, but with a mind so framed that should you require not to be so, you may be able and know how to change to the opposite."
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Source: Niccolo Machiavelli (2010). “The Prince”, p.73, FastPencil Inc
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