Machiavelli — "A man who is used to acting with caution, when circumstances require him to act …"
A man who is used to acting with caution, when circumstances require him to act with impetuosity, cannot change his nature.
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More from Machiavelli
"He who is not strong enough to be a fox and a lion at the same time, will be ruined by either."
"Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved."
"One change always leaves the way open for the introduction of another."
"Injuries ought to be done all at one time, so that, being tasted less, they offend less; benefits ought to be given little by little, so that the flavor of them may last longer."
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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.