Sublime

La politique, c’est l’art de la méfiance.

Where society has acquired a sufficient degree of stability to enable it to hold certain maxims and to retain fixed habits, the lower orders are accustomed to respect intellectual superiority and to submit to it without complaint, although they set at naught all those privileges which wealth and birth have introduced among mankind.

besoin. Je n’ai encore jamais rencontré un politicien qui ait le courage de déclarer en meeting ce que les électeurs doivent entendre. Les foules votantes ont tendance à se comporter

men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.

The Prince is very explicit in repudiating received morality where the conduct of rulers is concerned. A ruler will perish if he is always good; he must be as cunning as a fox and as fierce as a lion. There is a chapter (XVIII) entitled: “In What Way Princes Must Keep Faith.” We learn that they should keep faith when it pays to do so, but not other

Recentrant son propos sur le politique, il s’agit de démontrer que la meilleure organisation publique est celle qui laisse à chacun la liberté de croire, de penser et de s’exprimer.

príncipe, tanto na má como na boa fortuna. Isso não pode resultar de outra coisa senão daquela sua desumana crueldade que, aliada às suas infinitas virtudes, o tornou sempre venerado e terrível no conceito de seus soldados;

An understanding of people’s hidden motives is the single greatest piece of knowledge you can have in acquiring power.

The link between intentional deception and cognitive limitations was made five centuries ago by Machiavelli. “Men are so simple and so ready to follow the needs of the moment,” he wrote, “that the deceiver will always find someone to deceive.”