Source, in full
Machiavelli: The cult of the prince is a sort of religion and, like all possible religions, this cult prescribes contradictions and mysteries beyond reason. / …I wish my aims to be impenetrable, even to those who are closest to me. I would only communicate my projects when I gave the command for execution…. / His counselors ask one another secretly what he will think of next. He personifies in their eyes the Providence whose ways are