Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, — Niccolò Machiavelli
Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasion for it.
More by Niccolò Machiavelli
[Wjhoever is the cause of another becoming powerful, is ruined himself; for that power is produced by him either through craft or force; and both of these are suspected by the one who has been raised to power.
Many have imagined for themselves republics and principalities that no one has ever seen or known to be in reality. Because how one ought to live is so far removed from how one lives that he who lets go of what is don…
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It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.
Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel. Everyone sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are. The Prince
Love does not cause suffering: what causes it is the sense of ownership, which is love’s opposite.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Sin is geographical.
Bertrand Russell
There’s one way to find out if a man is honest—ask him. If he says, “Yes,” you know he is a crook.
Groucho Marx
Women marry men hoping they will change. Men marry women hoping they will not. So each is inevitably disappointed.
Albert Einstein
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Sin is geographical.
Bertrand Russell
There’s one way to find out if a man is honest—ask him. If he says, “Yes,” you know he is a crook.
Groucho Marx
Women marry men hoping they will change. Men marry women hoping they will not. So each is inevitably disappointed.
Albert Einstein