A State of Clear & Present Danger
History of American Foreign Policy During
the Cold War
"And yet to
found a republic, maintain states, to govern a kingdom, organize
an army, conduct a war, dispense justice, and extend empire,
you will find neither prince, nor republic, nor captain, nor
citizen, who has recourse to the examples of antiquity! This
neglect, I am persuaded, is due less to weakness to which
the vices of our education have reduced the world, than to
the evils caused by the proud indolence which prevails in
most of the Christian states, and to the lack of real knowledge
of history, the true sense of which is not known, or the spirit
of which they do not comprehend. Thus the majority of those
who read it take pleasure only in the variety of the events
which history relates, without ever thinking of imitating
the noble actions, deeming that not only difficult, but impossible;
as though heaven, the sun, the elements and men had changed
the order of their motions and power, and were different from
whatever were in ancient times."
- Niccolo Machiavelli The Discourses Book I, -
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