Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli:
(Florence, Florentine Republic, 3 May 1469 – there, 21 June 1527) was an Italian diplomat, political philosopher, military strategist, historian, poet, playwright and humanist based in Florence during the Italian Renaissance. He is considered the founder of modern political science. He was secretary of the Second Chancellery of the Florentine Republic from 1498 to 1512, when the Medici had already lost their power respectively but would later regain it.
Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.
For the friendships which we buy with a price, and do not gain by greatness and nobility of character, though they be fairly earned are not made good, but fail us when we have occasion to use them.
When territories that are conquered are used to living in freedom and according to their own laws, there are three methods of keeping them in possession; the first is to destroy them, the second is to live there yourself, the third is to let them live according to their own laws.
