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"If I could have believed that Fortune would have cut me off in

the midst of the career which was leading to that glory which all

my successes promised, I should have laboured less, and I should

have left thee, if a smaller state, at least with fewer enemies

and perils, because I should have been content with the

governorships of Lucca and Pisa. I should neither have subjugated

the Pistoians, nor outraged the Florentines with so many

injuries. But I would have made both these peoples my friends,

and I should have lived, if no longer, at least more peacefully,

and have left you a state without a doubt smaller, but one more

secure and established on a surer foundation. But Fortune, who

insists upon having the arbitrament of human affairs, did not

endow me with sufficient judgment to recognize this from the

first, nor the time to surmount it.