(bigger)“One should bear in mind that there is nothing more difficult to execute, nor more dubious of success, nor more dangerous to administer, than to introduce new political orders. For the one who introduces them has as his enemies all those who profit from the...

“When a problem arises either inside or outside a republic, and has become so serious that it has begun to terrify everyone, the safest policy to put off dealing with it rather than trying to eliminate it, because almost always those who eliminate it only increase its...

“The worst defect weak republics can have is to be indecisive, so that all their decisions are taken out of necessity, and if any good comes to them, it comes through force of circumstance rather than through their own prudence.” - Machiavelli [Discourses, I.38] In a...