Machiavelli — "A prince who is not himself wise cannot be well advised."
A prince who is not himself wise cannot be well advised.
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More from Machiavelli
"He who causes another to become powerful is ruined himself; because that power has been effected by him either by industry or by force, and both of these are suspicious to the one who has been raised …"
"It is much safer to be feared than loved."
"Men in general judge more by the sense of sight than by the sense of touch, because everyone can see but few can test by feeling."
"Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others."
"The people, when they are not restrained by fear, are always ready to commit every kind of excess."
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.