Stupidity trumps Machiavelli almost every time when you are looking for an explanation.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
What's distinctively shocking about Machiavelli is that he didn't care. He believed not only that politicians must do evil in the name of the public good, but also that they shouldn't worry about it. He was unconcerned, in other words, with what modern thinkers call 'the problem of dirty hands.'
Machiavelli had some cold tricks for people who wanted to be demagogues and wanted to take over the world.
Stupidity is something unshakable; nothing attacks it without breaking itself against it; it is of the nature of granite, hard and resistant.
I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.
Stupid is a great force in human affairs.
Stupidity is the deliberate cultivation of ignorance.
Machiavelli did believe that it was better to appear to be good than to be good. If you're good, you're just too vulnerable, but if you appear to be good, you get all the benefits plus you can be sneaky and, when necessary, stab someone in the back.
Stupidity often saves a man from going mad.
Man has made use of his intelligence, he invented stupidity.