"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."
"Violence must be inflicted once for all; people will then forget what it tastes like and so be less resentful. Benefits must be conferred gradually; and in that way they will taste better."
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Source: Discourses on Livy by Niccolò Machiavelli, book 2, ch. 3, translation by Mansfield and Tarcov, 1517.
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