Machiavelli — "The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws."
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.
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More from Machiavelli
"It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver."
"It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles."
"Politics have no relation to morals."
"It is much more difficult to injure one who is loved than one who is hated."
"Men are generally so simple and so ready to obey present necessities, that one who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived."
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.