"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."
"You do not know the unfathomable cowardice of humanity...servile in the face of force, pitiless in the face of weakness, implacable before blunders, indulgent before crimes...and patient to the point of martyrdom before all the violences of bold despotism."
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Source: Niccolo Machiavelli (1979). “The Portable Machiavelli”, p.108, Penguin
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