It is well to seem merciful, faithful, humane, sincere, religious, and also to be so; but you must have the mind so disposed so that when it is needful to be otherwise you may be able to change to the opposite qualities.

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) Italian politician, philosopher, political scientist

The Prince, ch. 18 (1513) [tr. Ricci (1903)]