"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."
"Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasion for it."
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Source: Discourses on Livy by Niccolò Machiavelli, book 1, ch. 3, as translated by LJ Walker and B Crick, 1517.
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