Machiavelli — "The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the me…"
The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.
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More from Machiavelli
"Men are by nature much more inclined to evil than to good; and therefore, if you would have the good, you must put them under the necessity of being so."
"A prince must have no other object, no other thought, nor take anything else for his art, but war and its orders and discipline."
"When a prince has once made a reputation, he can easily overcome any enterprise, even if he has little strength."
"The nature of men is such that they are much beholden to those who do them good, and they are much offended by those who do them evil."
"The innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new."
About Machiavelli (1469-1527)
Florentine diplomat and political theorist whose The Prince (written 1513) became the founding text of political realism and gave us the adjective 'Machiavellian.' Closely associated with Francesco Guicciardini (fellow Florentine political analyst and historian). For an intellectual contrast, see Erasmus of Rotterdam, Dutch humanist and The Education of a Christian Prince author (1516) — Erasmus's princely-instruction manual was published three years after Machiavelli's, for the same European audience, and is the explicit Christian-virtue alternative to Machiavellian power-realism. The cleanest 'realism vs idealism' founding pairing in modern political theory.
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