“If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.”

—  Niccolo Machiavelli , book The Prince

Source: The Prince

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Niccolo Machiavelli photo
Niccolo Machiavelli 130
Italian politician, Writer and Author 1469–1527

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“Upon this, one has to remark that men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.”

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Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 3; Variant translation: Never do any enemy a small injury for they are like a snake which is half beaten and it will strike back the first chance it gets.

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“Just my vengeance complete,
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“…causing of injuries to others is of three descriptions, that which is done and that which is permitted to be done. Each again is three-fold. Prompted by desire of gain, as in the case of one who desires to obtain flesh and skin; prompted by anger as in the case of a man who has received some injury; done though ignorance of the real nature of an act, under the impression that the act proposed is a virtue.”

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Variant: There should be a top to bottom revamp of the Bureau of Corrections. Replacing the head is not enough. That has been done several times before and did not work.

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