"Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared."
Niccolo Machiavelli was an Italian political philosopher, diplomat, and writer of the Renaissance. He is best known for The Prince and the Discourses on Livy. His work shaped later political theory and statecraft debates.