It is necessary that the prince should know how to color his nature well, and how to be a hypocrite and dissembler. For men are so simple, and yield so much to immediate necessity, that the deceiver will never lack dupes.
Niccolo MachiavelliA prince must not have any other object nor any other thoughtโฆ but war, its institutions, and its discipline; because that is the only art befitting one who commands.
Niccolo Machiavelli