Peter the Great — "It is better to err on the side of severity than on the side of leniency."
It is better to err on the side of severity than on the side of leniency.
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More from Peter the Great
"When you have to deal with a bear, you have to kill it or let it run away. You cannot just cut off its paws and expect it to be harmless."
"I am not a physician, but I can cure the illnesses of the state."
"I have no doubt that if I had not been born a king, I would have become a craftsman."
"A great city must have a great river."
"Drunkenness is the ruin of mankind; it destroys families and states."
About Peter the Great (1672-1725)
Russian tsar (1682-1725) who Westernized Russia, founded St. Petersburg, and built Russia into a European great power. Closely associated with Catherine the Great (later Westernizing Russian empress). For an intellectual contrast, see Old Believers, Russian Orthodox traditionalist movement that rejected Patriarch Nikon's reforms and Peter's modernization — Peter's beard-shaving decrees, Western dress laws, and calendar changes triggered a religious-cultural schism — the founding poles of Russia's eternal 'European modernity vs Slavic tradition' debate that runs through Slavophiles, Solzhenitsyn, and contemporary Putin-era ideology.