NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI THE MORALS OF THE PRINCE802 803
and half beast can only mean that a hears him, he should appear all compassion, all honor, all humanity, all integ¬ rity, all religion. Nothing is more necessary than to seem to have this last vir
by the sense of sight than by the sense of touch, see but only a few can test by feeling. Everyone sees whal
you seem to be, few know what you really are; and those few do not dare take a stand against the general opinion, supported by the majesty of the governmenl. In the actions of all
pline.8 Having a teacher who is half prince must know how to use both these two natures, and that one without the
other has no lasting effect. Since a prince must know how to use the character of beasts, he should
pick for imitation the fox and the lion. As the lion cannot protect himself from
traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves, you have to be a fox in
order to be wary of traps, and a lion to overawe the wolves. Those who try to
live by the lion alone are badly mistaken. Thus a prudent prince cannot and
should not keep his word when to do so would go against his interest, or when
the reasons that made him pledge it no longer apply. Doubtless if all
good, this rule would be bad; but since they are a sad lot, and keep no faith
with you, you in your turn are under no obligation to keep it with them.
15 Besides, a prince will never lack for legitimate excuses to explain away his
breaches of faith. Modern history will furnish innumerable examples of this
behavior, showing how many treaties and promises have been made null and
void by the faithlessness of princes, and how the man succeeded best who knew
best how to play the fox. But it is a necessary part of this nature that you must
conceal it carefully; you must be a great liar and hypocrite. Men are so simple
of mind, and so much dominated by their immediate needs, that a deceitful
man will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived. One of many recent
pies calls for mention. Alexander VI9 never did anything else, never had
another thought, except to deceive men, and he always found fresh material to
work on. Never was there a man more convincing in his assertions, who sealed
his promises with more solemn oaths, and who observed them less. Yet his
deceptions were always successful, because he knew exactly how to manage
this sort of business. In actual fact, a prince may not have all the admirable qualities we listed,
that he should seem to have them. Indeed, I will ven-
man
tue. Men in general judge because everyone can
more
men, and especially of princes who are not subject to a court of appeal, we must always look to the end. Let a prince, therefore, wi victories and uphold his state; his methods will always he considered worthy, and everyone will praise them, because the masses are always impressed by the superficial appearance of things, and by the outcome of an enterprise. And the world consists of nothing but the masses; the few who have no influence when
men were
the many feel secure. A certain prince of our own time, whom it’s just as well not to name,10 preaches nothing but peace and mutual trust, yet he is the deter mined enemy of both; and if on several different occasions he had observed either, he would have lost both his reputation and his throne.
10. Probably Ferdinand of Spain, then allied with the house of Medici.
QUESTIONS exam
I . This selection contains four sections of The Prince: “On the Reasons Why Men Arc Praised or Blamed—Especially Princes”; “On Liberality and Stinginess”; “On Cruelty and Clemency: Whether It Is Better to Be Loved or Feared”; and “The Way Princes Should Keep Their Word.” How, in each section, does Machiavelli contrast the real and the ideal, what he calls “the way we really live and the way we ought to live” (para graph 1)? Mark some of the sentences in which he expresses these contrasts.
’ Rewrite some of Machiavelli’s advice to princes less forcibly and shockingly, and palatably. For example, “Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound In
come to ruin among the great number who as “Good men are often taken advantage of and harmed by men who are not
but it is very necessary ture to say that when you have them and exercise them all the time, they are
harmful to you; when you just seem to have them, they are useful. It is good to
merciful, truthful, humane, sincere, and religious; it is good to be so in
lity. But you must keep your mind so disposed that, in case of need, you
the exact contrary. This has to be understood: a prince, and especially
prince, cannot possibly exercise all those virtues for which men are
called “good.” To preserve the state, he often has to do things against his word,
against charity, against humanity, against religion. Thus he has to have a mind
ready to shift as the winds of fortune and the varying circumstances of lilt
may dictate. And as I said above, he should not depart from the good if he
hold to it, hut he should be ready to enter on evil if he has to.
Hence a prince should take great imbued with the five good qualities noted above; to anyone who sees or
more
not good” (paragraph I) might be rcwi Hareappear lencan good. V Describe Machiavelli’s view of human nature. How do his views of governmenl Ibl low from it?
rea
turn to
a new
I Machiavelli might be described sixteenth-century spin doctor teaching a ml how to package himself. Adapt his advice to a current figure in national, state, or local
ure in a brief essay.
as a Cl
politics, and write about that figcan
to drop a word that does notcare never
seem
8. Achilles was foremost among the Greek heroes in the Trojan War. Hall man and
said to have taught the arts of war and peace,half horse, the mythical Chiron was including hunting, medicine, music, and prophecy.
9. Pope from 1492 to 1503.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI THE MORALS OF THE PRINCE800 801
talents, made him an object of awe and terror to his soldiers; and without the cruelty, his other qualities would never have sufficed. The historians who pi snap judgments on these matters admire his accomplishments and at the same time condemn the cruelty which was their main cause.
When I say, “His other qualities would never have sufficed,” that this is true from the example of Scipio,6 among those of his own time, but in all recorded history; yet his armies revolted in Spain, for no other reason than his excessive leniency in allowing his soldiers
freedom than military discipline permits. Fabius Maximus rebuked him in the senate for this failing, calling him the corrupter of the Roman When a lieutenant of Scipio’s plundered the Locrians,7 he took no action in behalf of the people, and did nothing to discipline that insolent lieutenant; again, this was the result of his easygoing nature. Indeed, when someone in the senate wanted to excuse him on this occasion, he said there are many men who knew better how to avoid error themselves than how to correct error in others. Such a soft temper would in time have tarnished the fame and glory of Scipio, had he brought it to the office of emperor; but as he lived under the control of the senate, this harmful quality of his not only remained hidden but sidered creditable.
Returning to the question of being feared or loved, I conclude that since men love at their own inclination but can be made to fear at the inclination of the prince, a shrewd prince will lay his foundations on what is under his control, not on what is controlled by others. He should simply take pains not to he hated, as I said.
My cruel fate And doubts attending an unsettled state
Force me to guard my coast from foreign foes. iss
Yet a prince should be slow to believe rumors and to commit himself to action
the basis of them. He should not be afraid of his own thoughts; he ought to
proceed cautiously, moderating his conduct with prudence and humanity, allow¬
ing neither overconfidence to make him careless, nor overtimidity to make him
intolerable. Here the question arises: is it better to be loved than feared, or vice versa?
I don’t doubt that every prince would like to be both; but since it is hard to
accommodate these qualities, if you have to make a choice, to be feared is
much safer than to be loved. For it is a good general rule about men, that they
grateful, fickle, liars and deceivers, fearful of danger and greedy for gain.
While you serve their welfare, they are all yours, offering their blood, their
belongings, their lives, and their children’s lives, as we noted above—so long as the danger is remote. But when the danger is close at hand, they turn against
you. Then, any prince who has relied on their words and has made no other
preparations will come to grief; because friendships that are bought at a price,
and not with greatness and nobility of soul, may be paid for but they are
acquired, and they cannot be used in time of need. People who makes himself loved than one who makes himsell
we can sec* outstanding man not onlyon an
more
armies.
are un
was cori-
iiot
are less concerned
with offending a man feared: the reason is that love is a link of obligation which men, because they
rotten, will break any time they think doing so serves their advantage; but
fear involves dread of punishment, from which they can never escape. Still, a prince should make himself feared in such a way that, even if he gets
hate either; because it is perfectly possible to be feared and
own
are
I HE WAY PRINCES SHOULD KEEP THEIR WORD no love, he gets no not hated, and this will be the result if only the prince will keep his hands off
the property of his subjects or citizens, and off their
to shed blood, he should be sure to have a strong justification and manifest ; but above all, he should not confiscate people’s property, because men are
I low praiseworthy it is for a prince to keep his word and live with integrity rather than by craftiness, everyone understands; yet we see from recent expc rience that those princes have accomplished most who paid little heed to keep ing their promises, but who knew how craftily to manipulate the minds of men. In the end, they won
You should consider then, that there
women. When he does have
cause quicker to forget the death of a father than the loss of a patrimony. Besides, pre¬
texts for confiscation are always plentiful, it never fails that a prince who starts
living by plunder can find reasons to rob someone else. Excuses for proceeding
against someone’s life are much rarer and more quickly exhausted.
But a prince at the head of his armies and commanding a multitude ol
soldiers should not care a bit if he is considered cruel; without such a reputa¬
tion, he could never hold his army together and ready for action. Among the
marvelous deeds of Hannibal,5 this was prime: that, having an immense army,
which included men of many different races and nations, and which he led to
battle in distant countries, he never allowed them to fight among themselves
or to rise against him, whether his fortune this could only be his inhuman cru
out over those who tried to act honestly. are two ways of fighting, one with
laws and the other with force. The first is properly a human method, the ond belongs to beasts. But as the first method does not always suffice, you sometimes have to turn to the second. Thus a prince must know how to make j M x )d use of both the beast and the man. Ancient writers made subtle note ol
sec
this fact when they wrote that Achilles and many other princes of antiquity were sent to be reared by Chiron the centaur, who trained them in his disci
<». I lu* Roman general whose successful invasion of Carthage in 203 B.C.E. caused Hannibal’s army to be recalled from Rome. The episode described here 206 B.C.E.
Fabius Maximus, not only a senator but also a high public official and general who bad Fought against Hannibal in Italy; Locrians, people of Sieily defeated by Scipio in 20S B.C.I . and placed under Q. Pleminius.
was good or bad. The reason for elty, which, along with his countless other occurret
5. Carthaginian general who led a massive but unsuccessful invasion of Rome in 21 H
203 B.C.E.
796 JONATHAN SWIFT
The Morals of the Princewhereby we can incur no danger in disobliging England. For this kind of modity will not bear exportation, the flesh being of too tender a consistence to admit a long continuance in salt, although perhaps I could name a country17 which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it.
After all, I am not so violently bent upon my own opinion as to reject any oiler proposed by wise men, which shall be found equally innocent, cheap, easy, and effectual. But before something of that kind shall be advanced in contradiction to my scheme, and offering a better, I desire the author or authors NN ill be pleased maturely to consider two points. First, as things now stand, how I hey will be able to find food and raiment for an hundred thousand useless mouths and backs. And secondly, there being a round million of creatures in human figure throughout this kingdom, whose sole subsistence put into mon stock would leave them in debt two millions of pounds sterling, adding I hose who are beggars by profession to the bulk of farmers, cottagers, and labor¬ ers, with their wives and children who I icians who dislike answer,
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLIcom-
REASONS WHY MEN ARE PRAISED OR BLAMED
ESPECIALLY PRINCES O N THE
T REMAINS NOW to be seen what style and princi¬
ples a prince ought to adopt in dealing with his
bjects and friends. I know the subject has been
treated frequently before, and I’m afraid people will
think me rash for trying to do so again, especially
I intend to differ in this discussion from
what others have said. But since I intend to write something useful to
understanding reader, it seemed better to go after the real truth of the matter
than to repeat what people have imagined. A great many men have imagined
states and princedoms such as nobody ever saw or knew in the real world, for
there’s such a difference between the way we really live and the way we ought
to live that the man who neglects the real to study the ideal will learn how to
accomplish his ruin, not his salvation. Any man who tries to be good all the
time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good.
Hence a prince who wants to keep his post must learn how not to be good, and
use that knowledge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires.
Putting aside, then, all the imaginary things that say that whenever men
Sll
since an
a com¬
are beggars in effect; I desire those poli- my overture, and may perhaps be so bold to attempt
that they will first ask the parents of these mortals whether they would not at this day think it a great happiness to have been sold for food at in the manner
an
a year old I prescribe, and thereby have avoided such a perpetual scene of
misfortunes as they have since gone through by the oppression of landlords, the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade, the want of lenance, with neither house nor clothes to cover them from the inclemencies u! the weather, and the most inevitable prospect of entailing the like miseries upon their breed forever.
I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my country, by advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to the rich. I have no children by which I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past childbearing.
common sus- are said about princes, are discussed (andd getting down to the truth, let
especially princes because they are prominent), there are certain qualities that
bring them either praise or blame. Thus some are considered generous, others
stingy (I use a Tuscan term, since “greedy” in our speech means a man who
wants to take other people’s goods. We call a man “stingy” who clings to his
own); some are givers, others grabbers; some cruel, others merciful; one man is
treacherous, another faithful; one is feeble and effeminate, another fierce and
spirited; one humane, another proud; one lustful, another chaste; one straight¬
forward, another sly; one harsh, another gentle; one serious, another playful; . I know everyone will agree that
meanor greater ____ religious, another skeptical, and
among these many qualities a prince certainly ought to have all those that
considered good. But since it is impossible to have and exercise them all,
because the conditions of human life simply do not allow it, a prince must be
shrewd enough to avoid the public disgrace of those vices that would lose him
his state. If he possibly can, he should also guard against vices that will not lose
him his state; but if he cannot prevent them, he should not be too worried
about indulging them. And furthermore, “fie should not be too worried about
incurring blame for any vice without which he would find it hard to save his
For if you look at matters carefully, you will see that something resem-
17. I Hglund. so onone are
11 1 O NK
Identify exu • nl the essay itself.
k, m particular, at instances in which Swift’s authorial persona proposes shock ing things. I low does the style of the “Modest Proposal” affect its content?
Verbal irony consists ol saying one thing and meaning another. At what point l<> you begin to suspect that Swift is using irony? What additional evidence of
tmples of the reasonable voice of Swift’s authorial persona, such as the
( )( )
4 state. in I his
From The Prince (1513), a book on statecraft writtenfor Giuliano de Medici (1479—1516), a member of one of the most famous and powerfulfamilies of Renaissance Italy. Excerpted
from an edition translated and edited by Robert M. Adams (1977).
I Writ modest proposal ol your own in the it is. propose an outrageous remedy in a reasomibl
e a >1 Swill to remedy a real prolmaimri < e voic<
797
THE MORALS OF THE PRINCENICCOLO MACHIAVELLI798 799
was one of those who wanted to become ruler in Rome; but after he had reached his goal, if he had lived, and had not cut down on his expenses, he would have ruined the empire itself. Someone may say: there have been plenty of princes, very successful in warfare, who have had a reputation for generosity. But I answer: either the prince is spending his own money and that of his subjects, or he is spending someone else’s. In the first case, he ought to be sparing; in the second case, he ought to spend money like water. Any prince at the head of his army, which lives on loot, extortion, and plunder, disposes of other peoples property, and is bound to be very generous; otherwise, his soldiers would des¬ ert him. You
bling virtue, if you follow it, may be your ruin, while something else resembling
vice will lead, if you follow it, to your security and well-being.
ON LIBERALITY AND STINGINESS
Let me begin, then, with the first of the qualities mentioned above, by saying
reputation for liberality is doubtless very fine; but the generosity that
earns you that reputation can do you great harm. For if you exercise your gen¬
erosity in a really virtuous way, as you should, nobody will know of it, and you
cannot escape the odium of the opposite vice. Hence if you wish to be widely
known as a generous man, you must seize every opportunity to make a big
display of your giving. A prince of this character is bound to use up his entire
revenue in works of ostentation. Thus, in the end, if he wants to keep a name
for generosity, he will have to load his people with exorbitant taxes and squeeze
money out of them in every way he can. This is the first step in making him
odious to his subjects; for when he is poor, nobody will respect him. Then,
when his generosity has angered many and brought rewards to a few, the
slightest difficulty will trouble him, and at the first approach of danger, down
he goes. If by chance he foresees this, and tries to change his ways, he will
immediately be labeled a miser.
that a
can always be a more generous giver when what you give is not yours or your subjects’; Cyrus, Caesar, and Alexander1 were generous in this way. Spending what belongs to other people does no harm to your reputation, rather it enhances it; only spending your own substance harms you. And there is nothing that wears out faster than generosity; even as you practice it, you lose the means of practicing it, and you become either poor and contemptible or (in the course of escaping poverty) rapacious and hateful. The thing above ill against which a prince must protect himself is being contemptible and hateful; generosity leads to both. Thus, it’s much wiser to put up with the reputation of being a miser, which brings you shame without hate, than to be forced—just because you want to rapacity, which brings shame
appear generous—into a reputation for on you and hate along with it.this virtue of liberality in such a way as to
security, he won t mind, if lie In due course he will be
Since a prince cannot use
become known for it unless he harms his
judges prudently of things, being known as a miser.
thought the more liberal man, when people see that his parsimony enables
him to live on his income, to defend himself against his enemies, and to under
take major projects without burdening his people with taxes. Thus he will he
acting liberally toward all those people from whom he takes nothing (and there
are an immense number of them), and in a stingy way toward those people on
whom he bestows nothing (and they are very few). In our times, we have seen
who have had the name of miser.
own ON CRUELTY AND CLEMENCY: WHETHER IT IS BETTER 10 BE LOVED OR FEARED ( ontinuing now with our list of qualities, let me say that every prince should prefer to be considered merciful rather than cruel, yet he should be careful not ••• mismanage this clemency of his. People thought Cesare Borgia2 was cruel, bill that cruelty of his reorganized the Romagna, united it, and established it in I- ice and loyalty. Anyone who views the matter realistically will see that this I ‘i ince was much more merciful than the people of Florence, who, to avoid the i< putation of cruelty, allowed Pistoia to be destroyed.3 Thus, no prince should mind being called cruel for what he does to keep his subjects united and loyal; L may make examples of a very few, but he will be more merciful in reality 1 ban those who, in their tenderheartedness, allow disorders to occur, with their
lulant murders and lootings. Such turbulence brings harm immunity, while the executions ordered by a prince affect only one individual
ii a time. A new prince, above all others, cannot possibly avoid a name for _ „ • li\. since new state# are always in danger. And Virgil, speaking through the 1111 “ii h of Dido,4 says:
great things being accomplished only by
all the others have gone under. Pope Julius II, though he used his reputation sacrificed it in order to be able to mala
without levying a singh
men
as a generous man to gain the papacy,
war; the present king of France has waged many
extra tax on his people, simply because he could take care of the extra expenses
out of the savings from his long parsimony. If the present king of Spain had .»
reputation for generosity, he would never have been able to undertake so main
campaigns, or win so many of them. Hence a prince who prefers not to rob his subjects, who wants to be
ahl.
to defend himself, who wants to avoid poverty and contempt, and who docsn’l
want to become a plunderer, should not mind in the least if people
him a miser; this is simply one of the vices that enable him to reign. Someoiil
may object that Caesar used a reputation for generosity to become empe
and many other people have also risen in the world, because they were g<
ous or were supposed to be so. Well, I answer, either you are a prince ahead!
or you are in the process of becoming one; in the first case, this reput at ion Ini
generosity is harmful to you, in the second case it is very necessary. ( .1CMH
wars
iii <• to an entire 1 1
cm 5
considri
I l’« 1 M.m. Roman, and Macedonian conquerors and rulers in ancient times. I lie son of Pope Alexander VI; he
M’l’l 1502.
‘ I •\ unchecked riot ing between opposing fuel ions in 1502. I < hnm of (!art hage and l ragic heroine ol \ Irgil’s epic, the Aeneid.
1 1 n
duke of Romagna, which he subjugated inii’ 1 was
