Machiavelli — "It is not fortune, but their own indolence, that causes men to abandon themselve…"
It is not fortune, but their own indolence, that causes men to abandon themselves to their fate.
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More from Machiavelli
"When a prince has once made a reputation, he can easily overcome any enterprise, even if he has little strength."
"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."
"Hence it is to be remarked that, in seizing a state, the usurper ought to arrange to commit all his cruelties at once, so as not to have to repeat them every day, and thus able to secure men without f…"
"A man who is used to acting with caution, when circumstances require him to act with impetuosity, cannot change his nature."
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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.