Word: machiavelli
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Throughout much of history, diplomats were considered several cuts below highwaymen and only slightly above strolling actors and gypsies. At the sight of a diplomat, a prince might well lock up his papers, his money and his women. In Machiavelli's time, an ambassador was expected to bribe a ruler's servants, seduce his wife and, in a pinch, kill him. As late as the 17th century, a member of the House of Commons seen talking to a foreign diplomat might lose his seat. If such distrust lingers today, it is probably because a great many governments...
...what wowed the school board was that the building came in $40,000 under the estimate. "When they saw the building, they were completely sold," says Hiss triumphantly. "Their minds had been closed since the age of seven. I finally got them sane. After that, I felt like Machiavelli's brother. It was like taking candy from a baby...
...Radcliffe, chiefly in connection with courses, but also in regard to important questions of the day, political, social, and artistic." It contained about two or three essays in each issue, with such titles as "The Concept of Personality," and "A Comparison of the Political Theories of Dante and Machiavelli." Shop only lasted a year; its demise was owed either to a lack of cash or perhaps of serious thinking...
...once been an instructor at New York University in the philosophy of education. The Professor became private tutor to the children of only the best gangsters, e.g., Squillante's godfather Albert Anastasia, Willie and Salvatore Moretti, Joe Adonis, Vito Genovese. (He taught "Socrates to the moderns," but not Machiavelli, he added thoughtfully, "because the philosophy of the end justifying the means is immoral.") This duty followed long after the time he was jailed on separate occasions for practicing medicine without a license and grand larceny...
...never assumes that water is what a fish is about. He raises questions of appearance v. reality, theory v. practice, but his chief question is: How may half-baked youth be seasoned to maturity? The recipe culled from his books: 1) the skepticism of Montaigne, 2) the craft of Machiavelli, 3) the self-reliance of Emerson, 4) the stoicism of Marcus Aurelius, and 5) the patience of Job. Cozzens' heroes do not "have fun"; they cannot "not give a damn"; they are trying to be responsible grownups in a confusing and dangerous world...