The desire to acquire is truly a very natural and common thing; and when men who are able to do so acquire, they are always praised and not blamed; but when they are not able to do so, and yet wish to do so, then there is blame and error.
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"Whence it may be noted that in taking a state the conqueror must arrange to commit all injuries at once and follow them up every day, so that by not repeating them he may be able to assure men and win…"
"Because there are three ways of holding conquered states that are accustomed to living under their own laws and in freedom: the first is to ruin them, the next is to reside there in person, the third …"
"Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception."
"Wise men say, and not without reason, that whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times."
"The end justifies the means."
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.
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