Machiavelli — "The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the me…"
The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.
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More from Machiavelli
"If a prince wants to maintain his rule, he must learn how not to be virtuous, and to make use of this or not, according to need."
"It is always necessary to take the lesser evil as good."
"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."
"The end justifies the means."
"Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great."
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.
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