The Prince
by Niccolo Machiavelli
translated by George Bull
(Penguin Classics, 1999)
Machiavelli’s Prince, a book which teaches effective tactics for the absolute ruler, and which many readers have seen as preaching ruthlessness and even glorifying in bloodshed.
Page xv.
Machiavelli’s obsessive interest in how politics work, his passion for gossip about important men and high affairs, his desperate effort to frame rules that could predict how men would respond to political challenges and crises - all these and many other traits of character and intellect were shared with a large number of his fellow citizens.
Page xvi.
In both form and content The Prince owes an enormous amount to the peculiar society and culture in which its author grew up, worked, thought and met his own political crisis.
Page xvii.
Florence had the first great public secular library of modern times, that of San Marco, founded by a patrician book-collector and connoisseur, Niccolò Niccoli.
Page xvii.
Long before Machiavelli’s lifetime the city had become a centre of the new, classical style in education and scholarship. By the middle of the fifteenth century, patricians as well as civil servants regularly cited classical examples in the course of public debates to justify modern policy choices.
Page xviii.
Coming under suspicion of conspiracy against the retuned Medici, Machiavelli, after being arrested and tortured, retired from the city to his small farm in the country, a few miles away, where he tormented himself anew with his desire to return to the metropolis and to politics. Machiavelli’s political life, in other word, began and ended in invasion and revolution.
Page xx.
Machiavelli turned to the traditional resources of the scholar - reading the classics - not only for diversion but in desperation. He hoped that by doing so he could not only understand his own situation, but prove his supreme expertise, and by doing so win a position with the new government of the Medici, one in which his talents would not rust in rural isolation.
Page xxi.
Machiavelli relied on the resources of the humanistic tradition - knowledge of the classics and eloquence in expression - to win him back a position in which he could lead the active political life he craved more than anything else.
Page xxii.
Many humanists before him, from Petrarch onwards, had addressed the topic of the ideal prince.
Page xxii.
Earlier humanists treatises on the ideal prince began with general ethical principles - the nature of man, the purpose of government, the connection of both to the pursuit of the virtuous life. Machiavelli, by contrast, boldly claimed that he would treat politics as it really is.
Page xxii.
Earlier treatises assumed that a prince needed above all to be good: to pursue virtue, in the traditional sense.
Page xxii.
Machiavelli often told the reader that qualities traditionally considered as ‘virtuous’, in the Christian or feudal senses, were not virtuous at all in a prince.
Page xxiii.
More than once he insisted that a truly Christian prince who kept faith, while other princes did not, or sought his subjects’ love rather than trying to make them fear him, would inevitably lose his position.
Page xxiii.
Politics must have its own rules.
Page xxiv.
From the 1490s onwards, moreover, the experience of dealing with impetuous rulers like Cesare Borgia and the great armies of the French made Florentines more and more aware that force seemed to rule human affairs.
Page xxiv.
By the time Machiavelli wrote The Prince, he was only one of many Florentine ‘prophets of force’. Both the concepts and the images that Machiavelli used to describe the successful prince, in other words, came to a considerable extent form the political language of the Florentine élite.
Page xxv.
In general, Machiavelli insisted, the bold would succeed better than the hesitant.
Page xxv.
He insisted, as all readers of his book immediately see, that the prince must employ any tactics, even vicious ones, needed to ensure his control over the state. Terror tacti s; the employment of brutal subordinates, who could be executed with brutality themselves once they had carried out their tasks; even the mass murder of one’s opponents - all of these expedients appear in the pages of The Prince, usually described with apparent equanimity.
Page xxvii.
At times, Machiavelli seems to glory in the brutality he describes.
Page xxviii.
Machiavelli gave his name to the ‘Machiavell’, the schemer who manipulated others in Jacobean tragedies, but he also provided the core of the doctrines of ‘reason of state’ that became the basic political education of modern Europe.
Page xviii.
The Prince is a classic because of its shrewd psychological insight, its prophetic quality, and its hard, vehement prose, and because it has never lost the power to shock.
Page xxxii.
He constantly dramatized his remarks and exaggerated his conclusions for the sake of impact.
Page xxxii.
I have tried to put Machiavelli into clear, unambiguous English, and therefore sometimes shortened his periods and made use of the variety of near synonyms available in English to avoid monotony.
Page xxxii.
It was written by a man of strong and complex passions and the writing faithfully mirrors the exciting thoughts of an imaginative intelligence.
Page xxxiii.
♦
A prince is always compelled to injure those who have made him the new ruler, subjecting them to the troops and imposing the endless other hardships which his new conquest entails.
Page 8.
Always, no matter how powerful one’s armies, in order to enter a country one needs the goodwill of the inhabitants.
Pages 8-9.
So long as their old ways of life are undisturbed and there is no divergence in customs, men live quietly.
Page 9.
If the ruler wants to keep hold of his new possessions, he must bear two things in mind: first, that the family of the old prince must be destroyed; next, that he must change neither their laws nor their taxes.
Pages 9-10.
Being on the spot, one can detect trouble at the start and deal with it immediately; if one is absent, it is discerned only when it has grown serious, and it is then too late.
Page 10.
Unless you establish settlements, you will have to garrison large numbers of mounted troops and infantry.
Page 10.
Any injury a prince does a man should be of such a kind that there is no fear of revenge.
Page 11.
When trouble is sensed well in advance it can easily be remedied; if you wait for it to show itself any medicine will be too late because the disease will have become incurable.
Page 12.
Political disorders can be quickly healed if they are seen well in advance.
Page 12.
There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.
Page 12.
Time sweeps everything along and can bring good as well as evil, evil as well as good.
Page 12.
One must never allow disorder to continue so as to escape a war. Anyhow one does not escape: the war is merely postponed to one’s disadvantage.
Page 14.
Whoever is responsible for another’s becoming powerful ruins himself, because this power is brought into being either by ingenuity or by force, and both of these are suspect to the one who has become powerful.
Page 15.
All principalities known to history are governed in one of two ways, either by a prince to whom everyone is subservient and whose ministers, with his favour and permission, help govern, or by a prince and by nobles whose rank is established not by favours of the prince but by their ancient lineage.
Pages 15-16.
A city used to freedom can be more easily ruled through its own citizens, provided you do not wish to destroy it, than in any other way.
Page 18.
There is no surer way of keeping possession than by devastation. Whoever becomes the master of a city accustomed to freedom, and does not destroy it, may expect to be destroyed himself.
Page 18.
Men nearly always follow the tracks made by others and proceed in their affairs by imitation, even though they cannot entirely keep to the tracks of others or emulate the prowess of their models. So a prudent man must always follow in the footsteps of great men and imitate those who have been outstanding. If his own prowess fails to compare with theirs, at least it has an air of greatness about it.
Page 19.
There is nothing more difficult to handle, more doubtful of success, and more dangerous to carry through than initiating changes in a state’s constitution.
Page 21.
We must distinguish between innovators who stand alone and those who depend on others, that is between those who to achieve their purposes can force the issue and those who must use persuasion.
Page 21.
All armed prophets have conquered, and unarmed prophets have come to grief.
Page 21.
The populace is by nature fickle; it is easy to persuade them of something, but difficult to confirm them in that persuasion.
Page 21.
Unless they possess considerable talent and prowess, private citizens are incapable of commanding; they cannot, because they do not have loyal and devoted troops of their own.
Page 22.
Men do you harm either because they fear you or because they hate you.
Page 28.
Whoever believes that with great men new services wipe out old injuries deceives himself.
Page 28.
We can say that cruelty is used well (if it is permissible to talk in tis way of what is evil) when it is employed once for all, and one’s safety depends on it, and then it is not persisted in but as far as possible turned to the good of one’s subjects. Cruelty badly used is that which, although infrequent to start with, as time goes on, rather than disappearing, grows in intensity.
Pages 31-32.
When he seizes the state a new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once for all, and not have to renew them every day, and in that way he will be able to set men’s minds at rest and win them over to him when he confers benefits.
Page 32.
Violence must be inflicted once for all; people will then forget what it tastes like and so be less resentful. Benefits must be conferred gradually and in that way they will taste better.
Page 32.
A man who becomes prince with the help of the nobles finds it more difficult to maintain his position than one who does so with the help of the people. As prince, he finds himself surrounded by many who believe they are his e quals, and because of that he cannot command or manage them the way he wants. A man who becomes prince by favour of the people finds himself standing alone, and he has near him either no one or very few not prepared to take orders.
Page 33.
The people are more honest in their intentions than the nobles are, because the latter want ot oppress the people, whereas they want only not to be oppressed. Moreover, a prince can never make himself safe against s hostile people: there are too many of them. He can make himself safe against the nobles, who are few.
Page 33.
A man who is made a prince by the favour of the people must work to retain their friendship; and this is easy for him because the people ask only not to be oppressed.
Page 34.
It is necessary for a prince to have the friendship of the people; otherwise he has no remedy in times of adversity.
Page 34.
A wise prince must devise ways by which his citizens are always and in all circumstances dependent on him and on his authority; and then they will always be faithful to him.
Page 35.
Men always dislike enterprises where the snags are evident, and it is obviously not easy to assault a town which has been made into a bastion by a prince who is not hated by the people.
Page 36.
The nature of man is such that people consider themselves put under an obligation as much by the benefits they confer as by those they receive.
Page 37.
The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient of composite ones, are good laws and good arms; and because you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow, I shall not discuss laws but give my attention to arms.
Page 40.
If a prince bases the defence of his state on mercenaries he will never achieve stability or security.
Page 40.
Mercenary armies bring only slow, belated, and feeble conquests, but sudden, startling defeat.
Page 43.
Cowardice is the danger with mercenaries, and valour with auxiliaries.
Page 45.
Wise princes, therefore, have always shunned auxiliaries and made use of their own forces.
Page 45.
If we consider what was the start of the downfall of the Roman empire, it will be found that it was simply when the Goths started to be hired as mercenaries. To that small beginning can be traced the enervation of the forces of the Roman empire. And the Goths inherited the prowess which the Romans lost.
Page 47.
Unless it commands its own arms no principality is secure; rather, it is dependent on fortune, since there is no valour and no loyalty to defend it when adversity comes.
Page 47.
The art of war is all that is expected of a ruler.
Page 47.
The first way to lose your state is to neglect the art of war; the first way to win a state is to be skilled in the art of war.
Page 47.
You are bound to meet misfortune if you are unarmed.
Page 48.
It is unreasonable to expect that an armed man should obey once who is unarmed, or that an unarmed man should remain safe and secure when his servants are armed.
Page 48.
Besides keeping his men well organized and trained, he must always be out hunting, so accustoming his body to hardships and also learning some practical geography: how the mountains slope, how the valleys open, how the plains spread out he must study rivers and marshes; and in all this he should take great pains. Such knowledge is useful in two ways: first, if he obtains a clear understanding of local geography he will have a better understanding of how to organize his defence; and in addition his knowledge of and acquaintance with local conditions will make it easy for him to grasp the features of any new locality with which he may need to familiarize himself. For example, the hills and valleys, the plains, the rivers, and the marshes of Tuscany have certain features in common with those of other provinces; so with a knowledge of the geography of one particular province one can easily acquire knowledge of the geography of others. The prince who lacks this knowledge also lacks the first qualification of a good commander. This kind of ability teaches him how to locate the enemy, where to take up quarters, how to lead his army on the march and draw it up for battle, and lay siege to a town to the best advantage.
Page 48.
As for intellectual training, the prince must read history, studying the actions of eminent men to see how they conducted themselves during war and to discover the reasons for their victories or their defeats, so that he can avoid the latter and imitate the former. Above all, he must read history so that he can do what eminent men have done before him.
Page 49.
I have thought it proper to represent things as they are in a real truthy, rather than as they are imagined.
Page 50.
The gulf between how one should live and how one does live is so wide that a man who neglects what is actually done for what should be done moves towards self-destruction rather than self-preservation.
Page 50.
If a prince wants to maintain his rule he must be prepared not to be virtuous.
Page 50.
He must not flinch from being blamed for vices which are necessary for safeguarding the state. This is because, taking everything into account, he will find that some of the things that appear to be virtues will, if he practises them, ruin him, and some of the things that appear to be vices will bring him security and prosperity.
Page 51.
If your generosity is good and sincere it may pass unnoticed and it will not save you from being reproached for its opposite. If you want to sustain a reputation for generosity, therefore, you have to be ostentatiously lavish; and a prince acting in that fashion will soon squander all his resources.
Page 51.
There is nothing so self-defeating as generosity: in the act of practising it, you lose the ability to do so, and you become either poor and despised or, seeking to escape poverty, rapacious and hated. A prince must try to avoid, above all else, being despised and hated; and generosity results in your being both.
Page 53.
A prince must want to have a reputation for compassion rather than for cruelty: none the less, he must be careful that he does not make bad use of compassion.
Page 53.
A prince must not worry if he incurs reproach for his cruelty so long as he keeps his subjects united and loyal.
Page 53.
It is far better to be feared than loved if you cannot be both.
Page 54.
Above all a prince must abstain from the property of others; because men sooner forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony.
Page 55.
A wise prince should rely on what he controls, not on what he cannot control.
Page 56.
Experience shows that princes who have achieved great things have been those who have given their word lightly, who have known how to trick men with their cunning, and who, in the end, have overcome those abiding by honest principles.
Page 56.
A prudent ruler cannot, and must not, honour his word when it places him at a disadvantage and when the reasons for which he made his promise no longer exist.
Page 57.
Because men are wretched creatures who would not keep their word to you, you need not keep your word to them.
Page 57.
One must know how to colour one’s actions and to be a great liar and deceiver.
Page 57.
He should appear to be compassionate, faithful to his word, kind, guileless, and devout. And indeed he should be so. But his disposition should be such that, if he needs to be the opposite, he knows how.
Page 57.
In order to maintain his state he is often forced to act in defiance of good faith, of charity, of kindness, or religion.
Page 57.
He should not deviate from what is good, if that is possible, but he should know how to do evil, if that is necessary.
Pages 57-58.
There are two things a prince must fear: internal subversion from his subjects; and external aggression by foreign powers.
Page 59.
Princes should delegate to others the enactment of unpopular measures and keep in their own hands the means of winning favours.
Page 61.
Princes cannot help arousing hatred in some quarters, so first they must strive not to be hated by all and every class of subject; and when this proves impossible, they should strive assiduously to escape the hatred of the most powerful classes.
Page 62.
One can be hated just as much for good deeds as for evil ones.
Page 63.
Princes cannot escape death if the attempt is made by a fanatic, because anyone who has no fear of death himself can succeed in inflicting it.
Page 65.
By arming your subjects you arm yourself; those who were suspect become loyal, and those who were loyal not only remain so but are changed form being merely your subjects to being your partisans.
Page 67.
A prince far more easily wins the friendship of those who were formerly satisfied with the existing government, and so were hostile to him then, than of those who, because they were dissatisfied, became his friends and favoured his occupation.
Page 70.
Fortresses are useful or not depending on circumstances; and if they are beneficial in one direction, they are harmful in another.
Page 70.
The best fortress that exists is to avoid being hated by the people. If you have fortresses and yet the people hate you they will not save you; once the people have taken up arms they will never lack outside help.
Page 70.
Princes who are irresolute follow the path of neutrality in order to escape immediate danger, and usually they come to grief.
Page 73.
A prince should never join in an aggressive alliance with someone more powerful than himself, unless it is a matter of necessity.
Page 73.
No government should ever imagine that it can always adopt a safe course; rather, it should regard all possible courses of action as risky. This is the way things are: whenever one tries to escape one danger one runs into another. Prudence consists in being able to assess the nature of a particular threat and in accepting the lesser evil.
Page 73.
A prince should also show his esteem for talent, actively encouraging able men, and honouring those who excel in their profession.
Page 74.
One man should not be afraid of improving his possessions, lest they be taken away from him, or another deterred by high taxes from starting a new business. Rather, the prince should be ready to reward men who want to do these things and anyone who endeavours in any way to increase the prosperity of his city or his state.
Page 74.
There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the second appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself not through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.
Page 74.
A man entrusted with the task of government must never think of himself but of the prince, and must never concern himself with anything except the prince’s affairs.
Page 75.
A shrewd prince should adopt a middle way, choosing wise men for his government and allowing only those the freedom to speak the truth to him, and then only concerning matters on which he asks their opinion, and nothing else. … Apart from these, the prince should heed no one; he should put the policy agreed upon into effect straight away, and he should adhere to it rigidly.
Page 76.
A prince must … never lack advice. But he must take it when he wants to, not when others want him to; indeed, he must discourage everyone from rendering advice about anything unless it is asked for.
Page 76.
A prince who is not himself wise cannot be well advised, unless he happens to put himself in the hands of one individual who looks after all his affairs and is an extremely shrewd man.
Page 77.
Good advice, whomever it comes from, depends on the shrewdness of the prince who seeks it, and not the shrewdness of the prince on good advice.
Page 77.
Men are won over by the present far more than by the past; and when they decide that what is being done here and now is good, they content themselves with that and do not go looking for anything else.
Page 77.
States which are robust enough to keep an army in the field cannot be lost.
Page 78.
The only sound, sure, and enduring methods of defence are those based on your own actions and prowess.
Page 78.
It is probably true that fortune is the arbiter of half the things we do, leaving the other half or so to be controlled by ourselves.
Page 79.
I also believe that the one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise that the one who whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not.
Page 80.
Men prosper so long as fortune and policy are in accord, and when there is a clash they fail. I hold strongly to this: that it is better to be impetuous than circumspect; because fortune is a woman and if she is to be submissive it is necessary to beat and coerce her.
Page 81.
God does not want to do everything Himself, and take away from us our free will and our share of the glory which belongs to us.
Page 83.
Nothing brings a man greater honour than the new laws and new institutions he establishes. When these are soundly based and bear the mark of greatness, they make him revered and admired.
Page 83.