/lit/ - Literature

>“The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.”

>“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”

>“There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.”

>“Never was anything great achieved without danger.”

>“Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception.”

>“it is much safer to be feared than loved because ...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.”

>“People should either be caressed or crushed. If you do them minor damage they will get their revenge; but if you cripple them there is nothing they can do. If you need to injure someone, do it in such a way that you do not have to fear their vengeance.”

>“All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it's impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.”

>“How we live is so different from how we ought to live that he who studies what ought to be done rather than what is done will learn the way to his downfall rather than to his preservation.”

>“Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good. Hence a prince who wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good, and use that knowledge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires.”

>"For my part I consider that it is better to be adventurous than cautious, because fortune is a woman, and if you wish to keep her under it is necessary to beat and ill-use her; and it is seen that she allows herself to be mastered by the adventurous rather than by those who go to work more coldly. She is, therefore, always, woman-like, a lover of young men, because they are less cautious, more violent, and with more audacity command her."

I didn't know Machiavelli was giving out based advice in the fucking 16th century.

Are there any other writers with a similar manipulative outlook towards life?

>>17656265
No Clauswitz and Machiavelli? why even

Kill them all and take it for myself

You didn't actually take my advice seriously, did you anon?

You didn’t actually take my advice seriously, did you?