he who is the cause of another becoming powerful is ruined; because that predominancy has been brought about either by astuteness or else by force, a… - Niccolò Machiavelli

In conclusion, the arms of others either fall from your back, or they weigh you down, or they bind you fast.

And what physicians say about consumptive illnesses is applicable here: that at the beginning, such an illness is easy to cure but difficult to diagnose; but as time passes, not having been recognized or treated at the outset, it becomes easy to diagnose but difficult to cure.

This raises the question whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the contrary. My reply is that I would like to be both but as it is difficult to combine love and fear, if one has to choose between them it is far safer to be feared than loved