Machiavelli — "It is always necessary to take the lesser evil as good."
It is always necessary to take the lesser evil as good.
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More from Machiavelli
"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."
"War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms."
"All men are bad and ever ready to use their inherent baseness whenever they have a free opportunity to do so."
"The vulgar crowd always is taken by appearances, and the world consists chiefly of the vulgar."
"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."
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.