Discourses on Livy, Book III, Niccolò Machiavelli: Chapter XXX – It is Necessary for a Citizen Who Proposes to Use his Authority to do any Good Work in a Republic First to Extinguish All Envy
… as long as such men see that your reputation is greater than theirs, they will never remain quiet and bear it with patience. Moreover, should such men have been used to living in a corrupt city in which education has not done them any good, it is impossible for any misfortune to convert them to a better state of mind. Rather would they see their country ruined than fail to obtain their ends and satisfy their perverse mentality. To overcome envy of this kind the only remedy lies in the death of those who are imbued with it.