Peter the Great — "I would rather have a few good men than many bad ones."
I would rather have a few good men than many bad ones.
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More from Peter the Great
"He who does not change, does not live."
"I am a sovereign and I will answer to no one for my actions."
"Ignorance and obstinacy are the greatest enemies of the state."
"I would rather have a hundred good engineers than a thousand good soldiers."
"I have not been able to find a single good general; I must be my own."
About Peter the Great (1672-1725)
Russian tsar (1682-1725) who Westernized Russia, founded St. Petersburg, and built Russia into a European great power. Closely associated with Catherine the Great (later Westernizing Russian empress). For an intellectual contrast, see Old Believers, Russian Orthodox traditionalist movement that rejected Patriarch Nikon's reforms and Peter's modernization — Peter's beard-shaving decrees, Western dress laws, and calendar changes triggered a religious-cultural schism — the founding poles of Russia's eternal 'European modernity vs Slavic tradition' debate that runs through Slavophiles, Solzhenitsyn, and contemporary Putin-era ideology.