This was the fortune cookie message from lunch yesterday: "For a good cause, wrongdoing may be virtuous."I told my assistant that it sounded like a license to steal...but many other dark ideas came to mind.In any case, since this is an IR blog, I might note that...
Always deny what you don't want to be known, and always affirm what you want to be believed. For, though there be much - even conclusive - evidence to the contrary, a fervent affirmation or denial...
Guicciardini on the perils of bandwagoning (allying with the strong against the weak), and generally of being a minor power:I was in Spain when the news came that the Venetians had made an alliance...
Nicollò Machiavelli is a household name among educated adult; most people who have taken an international-relations or political-theory course have read, at least in part, sections of The Prince or...