Status Updates From El príncipe

The first opinion that is formed of a ruler’s intelligence is based on the quality of the men he has around him. When they are competent and loyal, he can always be considered wise, because he has been able to recognize their competence and to keep them loyal. But when they are otherwise, the prince is always open to adverse criticism; because his first mistake has been in the choice of his ministers.

«Hence one may draw this general rule, which never or rarely fails: that he who is the cause of another becoming powerful is ruined; because that power is produced either by skill or by force, and both are distrusted by him who has been raised to power».

«Just as those who draw landscapes place themselves in the plains to consider the nature of mountains and high places, and to consider the nature of low places place themselves on high ground, so likewise to understand well the nature of peoples one must be a prince, and to understand well the nature of princes one must be of the people».