{
  "type": "quote",
  "site": {
    "name": "Leafy Quotes",
    "language": "en",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com"
  },
  "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.",
  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/diary-of-a-bad-year/machiavelli-says-that",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/diary-of-a-bad-year/machiavelli-says-that.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/diary-of-a-bad-year/machiavelli-says-that.md",
  "id": "5860fd0b-ddf0-40ae-a5e2-daeb71074527",
  "slug": "machiavelli-says-that",
  "text": "Machiavelli says that if as a ruler you accept that your every action must pass moral scrutiny, you will without fail be defeated by an opponent who submits to no such moral test. To hold on to power, you have not only to master the crafts of deception and treachery but to be prepared to use them where necessary.",
  "language": "en",
  "author": {
    "name": "J. M. Coetzee",
    "slug": "j-m-coetzee",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee"
  },
  "book": {
    "title": "Diary of a Bad Year",
    "slug": "diary-of-a-bad-year",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/diary-of-a-bad-year"
  },
  "character": null,
  "chapter": null,
  "chapter_parent": null,
  "page": 17,
  "verified": false,
  "original": null,
  "other_languages": [],
  "topics": [
    {
      "name": "power",
      "slug": "power",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power"
    },
    {
      "name": "politics",
      "slug": "politics",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics"
    },
    {
      "name": "morality",
      "slug": "morality",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality"
    }
  ],
  "source": {
    "name": "Wikiquote",
    "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._M._Coetzee#Diary_of_a_Bad_Year_(2007)",
    "license": {
      "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
      "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
    }
  },
  "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:33",
  "more_from_book": [
    {
      "id": "9d9389e1-6859-4c22-967c-1a57fa9470c8",
      "slug": "if-you-have",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/diary-of-a-bad-year/if-you-have",
      "text": "If you have reservations about the system and want to change it, the democratic argument goes, do so within the system: put yourself forward as a candidate for political office, subject yourself to the scrutiny and the vote of fellow citizens. Democracy does not allow for politics outside the democratic system. In this sense, democracy is totalitarian.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 15,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "democracy",
          "slug": "democracy",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy"
        },
        {
          "name": "totalitarianism",
          "slug": "totalitarianism",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/totalitarianism"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._M._Coetzee#Diary_of_a_Bad_Year_(2007)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:33"
    },
    {
      "id": "6c484e26-6ca0-4772-8f43-8b9f2d8a76f9",
      "slug": "as-during-the",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/diary-of-a-bad-year/as-during-the",
      "text": "As during the time of kings it would have been naive to think that the king’s firstborn son would be the fittest to rule, so in our time it is naive to think that the democratically elected ruler will be the fittest. The rule of succession is not a formula for identifying the best ruler, it is a formula for conferring legitimacy on someone or other and thus forestalling civil conflict.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 14,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "power",
          "slug": "power",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power"
        },
        {
          "name": "democracy",
          "slug": "democracy",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._M._Coetzee#Diary_of_a_Bad_Year_(2007)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:33"
    },
    {
      "id": "4bfffce3-8f30-4a94-9647-a50982afb115",
      "slug": "the-modern-state",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/diary-of-a-bad-year/the-modern-state",
      "text": "The modern state appeals to morality, to religion, and to natural law as the ideological foundation of its existence. At the same time it is prepared to infringe any or all of these in the interest of self-preservation.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 17,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "morality",
          "slug": "morality",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality"
        },
        {
          "name": "hypocrisy",
          "slug": "hypocrisy",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hypocrisy"
        },
        {
          "name": "the state",
          "slug": "the-state",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-state"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._M._Coetzee#Diary_of_a_Bad_Year_(2007)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:33"
    }
  ]
}