... one would like to be both [loved and feared], but as it is difficult to combine both love and fear, if one has to choose between them it is far s… - Niccolò Machiavelli

Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved

Wherefore, unless things be put on a sound footing by some one ruler who lives to a very advanced age, or by two virtuous rulers succeeding one another, the city upon their death at once falls back into ruin; or, if it be preserved, must be so by incurring great risks, and at the cost of much blood.

For this can be said of men in general: that they are ungrateful, fickle, hypocrites and dissemblers, avoiders of dangers, greedy for gain; and while you benefit them, they are entirely yours, offering you their blood, their goods, their life, their children,...when need is far away, but when you actually become needy, they turn away. (translated by Wayne A. Rebhorn)

For one change always leaves a dovetail into which another will fit.