Machiavelli — "Men must either be caressed or annihilated; they will revenge themselves for sli…"
Men must either be caressed or annihilated; they will revenge themselves for slight wrongs, but not for great ones.
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More from Machiavelli
"The people, when they have a good leader, are not afraid to fight; and if they are not afraid, they are strong."
"A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests."
"Men are won over as much by the love they are given as by the fear they are inspired with."
"Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them, they take vengeance, whereas if you wound them incurably, they are unable to do so."
"War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms."
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.