Machiavelli — "It is a common error among men to believe that the shortest way to conquer a thi…"
It is a common error among men to believe that the shortest way to conquer a thing is to try to obtain it by force.
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More from Machiavelli
"A prince must have no other object, no other thought, nor take anything else for his art, but war and its orders and discipline."
"Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries—for heavy ones they cannot."
"For where the fear of God is wanting, it is inevitable that the kingdom will come to ruin, or that it will be sustained by the fear of a prince, which will supply the want of religion."
"Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great."
"When a prince has once made a reputation, he can easily overcome any enterprise, even if he has little strength."
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.