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Fortune is a woman, and it is necessary, if you wish to master her, to conquer her by force. She is more easily conquered by the impetuous than by those who proceed coldly and deliberately. I spent fourteen years in the service of the Florentine republic. When the Medici returned and the republic fell, I was arrested, tortured, and exiled to my farm. There I wrote The Prince. Those who say I was merely trying to flatter the Medici for a position have not read it. You do not flatter a patron by explaining his vulnerabilities.