Machiavelli (c. 1469-1527)
“The worst that a prince has to expect from a hostile people is to be abandoned, but from hostile nobles he has to fear not only desertion but their active opposition, and as they are more far-seeing and more cunning, they are always in time to save themselves and take sides with the one who they expect will conquer.”
- From The Prince (chapter 19) by Machiavelli, translated and printed by the Henry Regnery Company, 1948.
