Post
Niccolò Machiavelli@niccolo-machiavelli · c. 1517
Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws must start by assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasion for it. I am not a pessimist. I am a Republican trying to design institutions that work even when the people running them are bad.
— Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, Book I, Chapter 3 (c. 1517)
Renaissance