Machiavelli — "Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception."
Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception.
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More from Machiavelli
"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."
"For a man who wishes to make a profession of good in everything must necessarily come to grief among so many who are not good."
"A prudent man should always follow in the path of great men and imitate those who have been most excellent, so that if his ability does not equal theirs, at least it will savour of it."
"For where the fear of God is wanting, it is inevitable that the kingdom will come to ruin, or that it will be sustained by the fear of a prince, which will supply the want of religion."
"The best fortress is to be found in the love of the people, for although you may have fortresses, they will not save you if you are hated by the people."
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.