Machiavelli — "A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his …"
A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.
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More from Machiavelli
"Hence it comes that all armed prophets have conquered and unarmed ones have failed."
"Men are generally so simple and so ready to obey present necessities, that one who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived."
"War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms."
"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."
"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."
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.