“Formerly, leaders of states practiced realism, but did not honor it. With them morality was violated, but moral notions remained intact. The modern governor, owing to the fact that he addresses crowds, is compelled to be a moralist, and to present his acts as bound up with a system of morality.” StatesFactsLeaderMoralModernHonorMoralityNotionBoundsCrowdsAddressesGovernorsRealismCompelledOwingMoralist Author:Julien Benda
“The most superficial fact regarding the 'Discourses,' the fact that the number of its chapters equals the number of books of Livy's 'History,' compelled us to start a chain of tentative reasoning which brings us suddenly face to face with the only New Testament quotation that ever appears in Machiavelli's two books and with an enormous blasphemy.” TwoBookFactsFacesNumbersEnormousChainsReasoningChaptersQuotationsSuperficialTestamentDiscourseCompelledNew TestamentFace To FaceBlasphemy Author:Leo Strauss