"Machiavelli says that if as a ruler you accept that your every action must pass moral scrutiny, you will without fail be defeated by an opponent who submits to no such moral test. To hold on to power, you have not only to master the crafts of deception and treachery but to be prepared to use them where necessary."

--

Source : "Diary of a Bad Year". Book by J. M. Coetzee, 2007.

J. M. Coetzee

#Deception Quotes #Use Quotes #Crafts Quotes

“Bright as does the morning star appear, Out of the east with flaming locks bedight, To tell the dawning day is drawing near.”
“In my final years in Green Bay, when I wasn't getting the ball, people would ask me why I never complained. 'Because these guys are my family,' I would say. 'I'm not selfish. It's not about me. It's about these guys, my family, and winning championships together.”
“A poet's soul must contain the perfect shape of all things good, wise and just. His body must be spotless and without blemish, his life pure, his thoughts high, his studies intense.”

Source : Augustine Birrell (1902). “Collected Essays”
“I want to create something that you haven't heard lyrically before. It's part of my job, and even though some of my songs are love songs, I tend to talk about love in different ways.”
“And that taught me you can't have anything, you can't have anything at all. Because desire just cheats you. It's like a sunbeam skipping here and there about a room. It stops and gilds some inconsequential object, and we poor fools try to grasp it - but when we do the sunbeam moves on to something else, and you've got the inconsequential part, but the glitter that made you want it is gone.”
“If Obamacare is allowed to stand - and Congress is allowed to make the purchase of government-endorsed health insurance compulsory - there will be no meaningful limit on Washington's reach into the lives of the American people. That is certainly not what the Founders intended.”
“To make a low-budget independent is not easy work.”
“Although you hadn't asked why, it had less to do with you not noticing than with you not wanting to hear the answer.”

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