Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince
Variant: Variant translation: The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.
Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 22; translated by W. K. Marriot
Source: The Prince
Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince
Variant: Variant translation: The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.
Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 22; translated by W. K. Marriot
“And those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness.”
Nec audiendi qui solent dicere, vox populi, vox Dei, quum tumultuositas vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit.
Alcuin (735–804) English scholar and abbot
Variant translation: We should not listen to those who like to affirm that the voice of the people is the voice of God, for the tumult of the masses is truly close to madness.
Works, Epistle 127 (to Charlemagne, AD 800)
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …
Speech to the Constitutional Convention, (June 2, 1787).
Constitutional Convention of 1787
Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam
Riyadh-as-Saliheen by Imam Al-Nawawi, volume 4, hadith number 637
Sunni Hadith
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright
The He-Ancient, in Pt. V
1920s, Back to Methuselah (1921)
Joseph Priestley book Essay on the First Principles of Government
Section II, "Of Political Liberty"
Essay on the First Principles of Government, 2nd Edition (1771)
Philippe de Commines book Mémoires
Deux grands princes qui se voudroient bien entr'aymer, ne se devroient jamais voir, mais envoyer bonnes gens et sages les uns vers les autres, et ceux là les entretiendroient ou amenderoient les fautes.
Bk. I, ch. 14.
Mémoires
Tanith Lee (1947–2015) British writer
Source: Prince on a White Horse (1982), Chapter 8 “The Tower of the Purple Knight” (pp. 231-232)