Machiavelli — "It is better to be impetuous than cautious, because Fortune is a woman, and if y…"
It is better to be impetuous than cautious, because Fortune is a woman, and if you wish to control her, it is necessary to beat and ill-use her.
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More from Machiavelli
"He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command."
"Men are won over as much by the love they are given as by the fear they are inspired with."
"He who desires to rule, must be prepared to use fraud and deceit."
"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."
"If a prince wants to keep his state, he must learn how to be not good, and to use or not use this according to the necessity."
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.