美第奇金融家族

• Huanhuan

  2011-03-18
  That since power can no longer stem from a truly legitimate source, but is always at the end of the day "seized," it will always be at best ad hoc, pro tem. Any drastic and definitive solution would thus be a fort waiting to be stormed by someone else equally drastic and determined. It is better to appear to be in constant negotiation, constantly ready to compromise. In the end, the key thing is to keep people, if not actually happy, then happy ENOUGH.
• Huanhuan

  2011-03-18
  Machiavelli was disgusted:" One cannot affirm it to be peace where principalities frequently attack one another with arms; yet they cannot be called wars in which men are not killed, cities are not sacked, principalities are not destroyed, for these wars came to such weakness that they were begun without fear, carried on without danger and ended without loss." Without much loss of life and territory, that is. But not without the loss of huge sums of money. This is where Medici came in