“A man who wishes to make a profession of goodness in everything must necessarily come to ruin among so many who are not good.”Niccolò Machiavelli · Principele · 1532 · capitolul 15
Absolute virtue, applied mechanically, becomes a vulnerability. Machiavelli does not demand wickedness, but moral flexibility: whoever can never be harsh, never less than candid when needed, becomes prey to the unscrupulous. A negotiator who refuses any bluff loses to one who bluffs. The idea is uncomfortable, but it names precisely the price of naivety.
Why it matters For those who mistake goodness for having no boundaries: you can remain a decent person and still say no, negotiate hard, defend yourself.