Machiavelli — "It is not reason but necessity that makes men humble."
It is not reason but necessity that makes men humble.
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More from Machiavelli
"And it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order…"
"To conquer, one must have the spirit of a lion and the cunning of a fox."
"The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present."
"Nature creates few men brave, industry makes many."
"A prince must be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves."
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.