Machiavelli — "The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws."
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.
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More from Machiavelli
"The wise man does at once what the fool does finally."
"The Roman state was ruined by the ambition of the people as much as by the ambition of the nobility."
"There is no surer way of holding an acquired state than by ruining it."
"For he who is not strong enough to protect himself must seek protection from others."
"It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver."
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.