Machiavelli — "For of men it may generally be affirmed, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false…"
For of men it may generally be affirmed, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous.
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More from Machiavelli
"For the nature of men is such that they are much more bound by the benefits they confer than by those they receive."
"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."
"A prince must have no other object, no other thought, nor take anything else for his art, but war and its orders and discipline; for this is the only art that belongs to him who rules."
"For it can be said of men in general that they are ungrateful, fickle, feigners and dissemblers, shirkers of dangers, eager for gain."
"A prince must be a fox, to know how to avoid snares; and a lion, to terrify wolves."
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.