The Desperate remedy

'Enecessario a chi dispone una repubblica, ed ordina leggi in quella, prassuppoie turn gli nornini rei, e chli abbiano sempre a usare la malignita dello animo loro, qualunque volta ne abbiano libera occasione.'

('It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.')

Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527