Machiavelli — "He who builds on the people, builds on mud."
He who builds on the people, builds on mud.
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More from Machiavelli
"Whence it may be noted that in taking a state the conqueror must arrange to commit all injuries at once and follow them up every day, so that by not repeating them he may be able to assure men and win…"
"Men are so simple and yield so readily to the necessities of the moment that he who deceives will always find someone who will let himself be deceived."
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"To conquer a people, and then not to live among them, is to lose them."
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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.