The world is like a game in which there are both honest and dishonest players, so that a prince who plays in this game must learn how to cheat, not in order to do it, but in order not to be the dupe of others.
Frederick II (1712-1786) King of Prussia (a.k.a. Frederick the Great)
Anti-Machiavel, ch. 18 (1740) [tr. Sonnino (1981)]