Francesco Guicciardini Quotes
It is better to be the subject of a prince than of a republic, for a republic keeps its subjects under, and gives no share of its greatness save to its own citizens; a prince is common to all, one man is as much his subject as another, therefore every one can hope to be favoured or employed.
Francesco Guicciardini, 1483-1540, Florentine Statesman, Quoted in Herbert A. L. Fisher, The Republican Tradition in Europe, The Harvard University Lowell Lectures, 1910
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These unfortunate characteristics of Germany at that time, produced the aggressive nation that started two world wars. Looking at Germany a century later, the country has changed radically—especially the three factors described in this quote. Germany has become very much like the rest of Western Europe and America.
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.
