Machiavelli

""With common traits of the tribe that he pushes to the extreme. More of a corsair, as he adds to the self-confidence of a tycoon the relaxation of a privileged son, so that nothing scares him. This hybrid of the Little Prince and Machiavelli does not believe in prohibitions and rejects the very idea of the impossible."

"What is your essential reading / audio list for 2019? Good to Great, by Jim Collins The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Dr. Stephen R. Covey The Goal, by Eliyahu Goldratt The Psychology of Achievement, by Brian Tracy Catch 22, by Joseph Heller Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell Shoe Dawg, by Phil Knight The Prince, by Machiavelli Black Box Thinking: The Surprising Truth about Success – And Why Some People Never Learn from Their Mistakes, by Matthew Syed 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works—A True Story, by Dan Harris After On: A Novel of Silicon Valley, by Rob Reid How I Built This, by Guy Raz (NPR podcast series) Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt The Diamond Cutter: The Buddha on Managing Your Business and Your Life, by Geshe Michael Roach Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, by John le Carré The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand"

"Machiavelli noted in The Prince, the best practice is to carry out this procedure in one “Night of Long Knives,” and then…"

"For of the lords he had despoiled he killed as many as he could reach, and very few saved themselves; the Roman gentlemen had been won over to himself; in the College he had a very large party; and as to new acquisition, he had planned to become lord over Tuscany, he already possessed Perugia and Piombino, and he had taken Pisa under his protection. And, as soon as he did not have to pay regard to France (which he did not have to do any longer, since the French had already been stripped of the kingdom by the Spanish, so that each of them was forced of necessity to buy his friendship), he would have jumped on Pisa. After this, Lucca and Siena would have quickly yielded, in part through envy of the Florentines, in part through fear; the Florentines had no remedy. If he had succeeded in this (as he was succeeding the same year that Alexander died), he would have acquired such force and reputation that he would have stood by himself and would no longer have depended on the fortune and force of someone else, but on his own power12 and virtue. But Alexander died five years after he13 had begun to draw his sword. He left the duke with only the state of Romagna consolidated, with all the others in the air, between two very powerful enemy armies, and sick to death. And there was such ferocity and such virtue in the duke, and he knew so well how men have to be won over or lost, and so sound were the foundations that he had laid in so little time, that if he had not had these armies on his back or if he had been healthy, he would have been equal to every difficulty. And that his foundations were good one may see: Romagna waited for him for more than a month; in Rome, though he was half-alive, he remained secure; and although the Baglioni, Vitelli, and Orsini came to Rome, none followed them against him; if he could not make pope whomever he wanted, at least it would not be someone he did not want."

"The list of books from which Napoleon made detailed notes from 1786 to 1791 is long, and includes histories of the Arabs, Venice, the Indies, England, Turkey, Switzerland and the Sorbonne. He annotated Voltaire’s Essais sur les moeurs, Machiavelli’s History of Florence, Mirabeau’s Des lettres de cachet and Charles Rollin’s Ancient History; there were books on modern geography, political works such as Jacques Dulaure’s anti-aristocracy Critical History of the Nobility, and Charles Duclos’ gossipy Secret Memoirs of the Reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV.68"