Francesco Guicciardini Quotes
It is a great matter to be in authority over others; for authority, if it be rightly used, will make you feared beyond your actual resources.
Guicciardini, Francesco. Counsels and Reflections of Francesco Guicciardini. Translated by Ninian Hill Thomson, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1890, maxim 194.
In a variant of Lord Acton’s famous quotation {292904} Caro focused on what people did with power once they had achieved it. This, he believed, revealed character.
Mytilene was at war with Athens. Pittacus suggested that instead of the armies fighting, the war should be decided by a battle between him and the Athenian General who accepted. Pittacus won and was the Ruler of Athens, where he became quite popular. He wrote all his laws and decrees in poetry. He resigned after 10 years. He was considered one of the 7 great Greek Sages.
Francesco Guicciardini was an Italian historian and statesman. A friend and critic of Niccolò Machiavelli, he is considered one of the major political writers of the Italian Renaissance. In his masterpiece, The History of Italy, Guicciardini paved the way for a new style in historiography with his use of government sources to support arguments and the realistic analysis of the people and events of his time.
