Niccolò Machiavelli

Machiavelli separated the question of how rulers keep power from how they ought to behave. The Prince (1513) advises that it is safer to be feared than loved if you cannot be both, and that fortune can be mastered only partly by virtù, decisive skill. Read the Discourses on Livy as well: there he prefers republics, argues that conflict between nobles and people kept Rome free, and comes across as far less "Machiavellian" than his reputation.