Machiavelli und Russell

It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more
doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage, than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institutions and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new ones.
-- Niccolo Machiavelli, 1513

The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
(Bertrand Russell)