Machiavelli — "He who is not strong enough to be a fox and a lion at the same time, will be rui…"
He who is not strong enough to be a fox and a lion at the same time, will be ruined by either.
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More from Machiavelli
"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."
"It is not the well-being of individuals, but the general good, that makes cities great."
"The common people are always caught by appearances and by the outcome of a thing; and in the world there are only the common people."
"Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number of men who are not good."
"In the actions of men, and especially of princes, from which there is no appeal, the end justifies the means."
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.