It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
renaissance · political-realism
Machiavelli
Niccolò Machiavelli · 1469–1527 · Florentine
Secretary of Florence and the first modern brief on power. Fortune, arms, and the difference between how one lives and how one ought to live.
The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.
Men in general judge more by the eyes than by the hands, for everyone can see, but few can feel.
Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.