Niccolo Machiavelli

There is such a gap between how one lives and how one ought to live that anyone who abandons what is done for what ought to be done learns his ruin rather than his preservation: For a man who wishes to profess goodness at all times will come to ruin among so many who are not good.

From this arises an argument: Whether it is better to be loved than feared. I reply that one should like to be both one and the other; but since it is difficult to join them together, it is much safer to be feared than loved when one of the two must be lacking.

It is far safer to be feared than loved.