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 is not strong enough to be a fox and a lion at the same time, will be ruined by either."
"Therefore a prince, not being able to use this virtue of liberality in such a way that it may be recognized, except to his cost, a wise prince ought not to mind the reputation of being a miser."
"God does not want to do everything, so as not to deprive us of our free will and part of the glory that belongs to us."
"A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise."
"For the nature of men is such that they are much more bound by the benefits they confer than by those they receive."
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.