Machiavelli — "Men are always more easily deceived when they are trying to deceive others."
Men are always more easily deceived when they are trying to deceive others.
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More from Machiavelli
"A man who is used to acting in one way, cannot change; because he cannot, he is ruined."
"The people, when they are not restrained by fear, are always ready to commit every kind of excess."
"There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you."
"The end justifies the means."
"In every city these two opposite parties are to be found, arising from the desire of the people to be not oppressed, and the desire of the nobles to oppress."
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.