From this arises the following question: whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the reverse. The answer is that one would like to be both t… - Niccolò Machiavelli

مصوري المناظر الطبيعية ينزلون إلى الوديان ليتمكنوا من رسم الجبال. ثم إنهم يصعدون إلى أماكن مرتفعة حتى يتمكنوا من رؤية السهول والوديان. ولذلك فمن الضروري أن تكون أميرا حتى تعرف طبيعة شعبك, كما أنه يجب أن تكون أحد الرعية أيضا كي تعرف الحقائق المتعلقة بالأمراء.

This return of Republics back to their principles also results from the simple virtue of one man, without depending on any law that excites him to any execution: none the less, they are of such influence and example that good men desire to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life contrary to those examples.

It was the verdict of ancient writers that men afflict themselves in evil and weary themselves in the good, and that the same effects result from both of these passions. For whenever men are not obliged to fight from necessity, they fight from ambition; which is so powerful in human breasts, that it never leaves them no matter to what rank they rise. The reason is that nature has so created men that they are able to desire everything but are not able to attain everything: so that the desire being always greater than the acquisition, there results discontent with the possession and little satisfaction to themselves from it. From this arises the changes in their fortunes; for as men desire, some to have more, some in fear of losing their acquisition, there ensues enmity and war, from which results the ruin of that province and the elevation of another.