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13 - The Prince - Machiavelli · The Philosophy Insights Collection

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Chapter twenty three, How flatterers should be avoided. I do not wish to
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leave out an important branch of this subject, for it is a danger from
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which princes are with difficulty preserved unless they are very careful and discriminating. It
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is that of flatterers, of whom courts are full, because men are so
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self complaisant in their own affairs, and in a way so deceived in them,
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that they are preserved with difficulty from this pest. And if they wish
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to defend themselves, they run the danger of falling into contempt. Because there
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is no other way of guarding oneself from flatterers except letting men understand that to
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tell you the truth does not offend you, but when every one may tell
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you the truth, respect for you abates. Therefore, a wise prince ought
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to hold a third course, by choosing the wise men in his state,
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and giving to them only the liberty of speaking the truth to him, and
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then only of the things of which he inquires, and of none others.
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But he ought to question them upon everything, and listen to their opinions,
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and afterwards form his own conclusions. With these counselors separately and collectively, he
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ought to carry himself in such a way that each of them should know that
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the more freely he shall speak, the more he shall be preferred. Outside
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of these, he should listen to no one, pursue the thing resolved on,
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and be steadfast in his resolutions. He who does otherwise is either overthrown
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by flatterers, or is so often changed by varying opinions that he falls into
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contempt. I wish on this subject to adduce a modern example. Fra Luca,
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the man of affairs to Maximilian, the present Emperor, speaking of his
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majesty, said he consulted with no one, yet never got his own way
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in anything. This arose because of his following a practice the opposite to the
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above. For the emperor is a secretive man. He does not communicate his
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designs to anyone, nor does he receive opinions on them. But as in
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carrying them into effect, they become revealed and known, they are at once
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obstructed by those men whom he has around him, and he, being pliant,
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is diverted from them. Hence, it follows that those things he does
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one day, he undoes the next, and no one ever understands what he
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wishes. Or intends to do, and no one can rely on his resolutions.
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Begin note Maximilian the First born in fourteen fifty nine died in fifteen nineteen,
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Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. He married first Mary, daughter of
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Charles the Bold, after her death Bianca Cephorza, and thus became involved in
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Italian politics. End note. A prince therefore ought always to take counsel,
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but only when he wishes, and not when others wish. He ought rather
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to discourage every one from offering advice unless he asks it. But however,
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he ought to be a constant inquirer and afterwards a patient listener concerning the things
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of which he inquired. Also, on learning that any one, on any
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consideration has not told him the truth, he should let his anger be felt.
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And if there are some who think that a prince who conveys an impression
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of his wisdom is not so through his own ability, but through the good
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advisers that he has around him, beyond doubt, they are deceived, because
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this is an axiom which never fails, that a prince who is not wise
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himself will never take good advice, unless by chance he has yielded his affairs
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entirely to one person who happens to be a very prudent man. In this
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case, indeed, he may be well governed, but it would not be
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for long, because such a governor would in a short time take away his
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state from him. But if a prince who is not inexperienced should take counsel
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from more than one, he will never get united councils, nor will they
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know how to unite them. Each of the councilors will think of his own
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interests, and the prince will not know how to control them or to see
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through them. And they are not to found otherwise, because men will always
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prove untrue to you unless they are kept honest by constraint. Therefore, it
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must be inferred that good counsels, whensoever they come, are born of the
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wisdom of the prince, and not the wisdom of the prince from good counsels.
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Chapter twenty four. Why the princes of Italy have lost their states.
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The previous suggestions carefully observed, will enable a new prince to appear well established,
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and render him at once more secure and fixed in the state than if
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he had been long seated there. For the actions of a new prince are
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more narrowly observed than those of an hereditary one, and when they are seen
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to be able to gain more men and bind far tighter than ancient blood.
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Because men are more attracted by the present than the past, and when they
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find the present good, they enjoy it and seek no further. They also
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make the most defense of a prince if he fails them not in other things.
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Thus it will be a double glory for him to have established a new
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principality and adorned and strengthened it with good laws, good arms, good allies,
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and with a good example. So it will be a double disgrace to
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him who born a prince shall lose his state by want of wisdom. And
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if those seignors are considered who have lost their states in Italy in our times,
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such as the King of Naples, the Duke of Milan, and others,
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there will be found in them, firstly, one common defect in regard
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to arms. From the causes which have been discussed at length in the next
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place, some one of them will be seen either to have had the people
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hostile, or if he has had the people friendly, he has not known
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how to secure the nobles in the absence of these defects. States that have
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power enough to keep an army in the field cannot be lost. Philip of
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Macedon, not the father of Alexander the Great, but he who was conquered
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by Titus Quintineus, had not much territory compared to the greatness of the Romans
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and of Greece who attacked him. Yet, being a warlike man who knew
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how to attract the people and secure the nobles, he sustained the war against
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his enemies for many years, and if in the end he lost a dominion
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of some cities, nevertheless he retained the kingdom. Therefore, do not let
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our princes accuse fortune for the loss of their principalities after so many years possession,
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but rather their own sloth, because in quiet times they never thought there
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could be a change. It is a common defected man not to take any
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provision in the calm against the tempest, And when afterwards the bad times came,
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they thought of flight and not of defending themselves, and they hoped that
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the people, disgusted with the insolence of the conquerors would recall them. This
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course, when others fail, may be good, but it is very bad
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to have neglected all the other expedients for that, since you would never wish
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to fall, because you trusted to be able to find someone later on to
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restore you. This again, either does not happen, or if it does,
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it will not be for your security, because that deliverance is of no
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avail which does not depend upon yourself. Those only are reliable, certain,
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and durable that depend on yourself and your valor Chapter twenty five. What fortune
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can effect in human affairs, and how to withstand her? It is not
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unknown to me how many men have had, and still have, the opinion
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that the affairs of the world are in such wise governed by fortune and by
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God, that men, with their wisdom cannot direct them, and that no
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one can even help them. And because of this they would have us believe
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that it is not necessary to labor much in affairs, but to let chance
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govern them. This opinion has been more credited in our times because of the
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great changes in affairs which have been seen, and may still be seen every
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day, beyond all human conjecture. Sometimes, pondering this, I am in
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some degree inclined to their opinion. Nevertheless, not to extinguish our free will,
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I hold it to be true that Fortune is the arbiter of one half
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of our actions, but that she still leaves us to direct the other half,
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or perhaps a little less. Begin note Frederick the Great was accustomed to
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say, the older one gets, the more convinced one becomes that his majesty
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King Chance does three quarters of the business of this miserable universe. From Sorel's
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eastern question end note, I compare her to one of those raging rivers,
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which, when in flood, overflows the plains, sweeping away trees and buildings,
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bearing away the soil from place to place. Everything flies before it,
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all yield to its violence, without being able in any way to withstand it.
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And yet though its nature be such, it does not follow therefore that
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men, when the weather becomes fair, shall not make provision both with defenses
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and barriers, in such a manner that, rising again, the waters may
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pass away by canal, and their force be neither so unrestrained nor so dangerous.
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So it happens with Fortune, who shows her power where valor has not
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prepared to resist her, and thither she turns her forces where she knows that
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barriers and defenses have not been raised to constrain her. And if you will
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consider Italy, which is the seat of these changes, and which has been
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given to them their impulse, you will see it to be an open country,
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without barriers and without any defense. For if it had been defended by
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proper valor, as are Germany, Spain and France, either this invasion we
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not have made that great changes it has made, or it would not have
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come at all. And this I consider enough to say concerning resistance to fortune
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in general, but confining myself more to the particular, I say that a
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prince may be seen happy today and ruined tomorrow, without having shown any change
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of disposition or character. This I believe arises firstly from causes that have already
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been discussed at length, namely, that the prince who relies entirely on fortune
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is lost when it changes. I believe also that he will succeed who directs
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his actions according to the spirit of the times, and that he whose actions
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do not accord with at times will not be successful. Because men are seen
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in affairs that lead to the end which every man has before him, namely
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glory, and riches to get there by various methods, one with caution,
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another with haste, one with force, another by skill, one by patience,
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another by its opposite, and each one succeeds in reaching the goal by
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a different method. One can also see of two cautious men, the one
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attain his end, the other fail. And similarly, two men of different
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observances are also equally successful, the one being cautious the other impetuous. All
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this arises from nothing else than whether or not they can form in their methods
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to the spirit of the times. This follows from what I have said,
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that two men working differently bring about the same effect, and of two working
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similarly, one attains his object and the other does not. Changes in a
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state also issue from this. If to one who governs himself with caution and
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patience, time and affairs converts in such a way that his administration is successful,
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his fortune is made. But if time and affairs change, he is
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ruined if he does not change his course of action. But a man is
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not often found sufficiently circumspect to know how to accommodate himself to the change,
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both because he cannot deviate from what nature inclines him to do, but also
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because, having always prospered by acting in one way, he cannot be persuaded
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that it is well to leave it. And therefore the cautious man, when
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it is time to turn adventurous, does not know how to do it.
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Hence he is ruined. But had he changed his conduct with the times,
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fortune would not have changed. Pope Julius the Second went to work impetuously in
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all his affairs, and found times and circumstances conformed so well to that line
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of action that he always met with success. Consider his first enterprise against Bologna,
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Monsieur Giovanni Bentvioli being still alive. The Venetians were not agreeable to it,
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nor was the King of Spain, and he had the enterprise still under
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his discussion with the King of France. Nevertheless, he personally entered upon the
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expedition with his accustomed boldness and energy, a move which made Spain and the
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Venetians stand irresolute and passive, the latter from fear, the former from desire
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to recover the Kingdom of Naples. And on the other hand he drew after
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him the King of France, because that king, having observed the movement,
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and desiring to make the Pope's friend so as to humble the Venetians found it
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impossible to refuse him. Therefore, Julius, with his impetuous action, accomplished
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what no other pontiff with simple human wisdom could have done. For if he
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had waited in Rome until he could get away, with his plans arranged and
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everything fixed, as any other pontiff would have done, he would never have
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succeeded, because the King of France would have made a thousand excuses, and
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others would have raised a thousand fears. I will leave his other actions alone,
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as they were all alike, and they all succeeded, for the shortness
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of his life did not let him experience the contrary. But if circumstances had
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arisen which required him to go cautiously, his ruin would have followed, because
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he would never have deviated from those ways to which nature inclined him. I
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conclude therefore, that fortune, being changeful and mankind steadfast in their ways,
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so long as the two are in agreement, man is successful, but unsuccessful
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when they fall out. For my part, I consider that it is better
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to be adventurous than cautious, because fortune is a woman, and if you
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wish to keep her under it is necessary to beat her and ill use her.
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And it is seen that she allows herself to be mastered by the adventuress,
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rather than those who go to work more coldly. She is therefore always
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womanlike a lover of young men, because they are less cautious, more violent,
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and with more audacity command her Chapter twenty six, an exhortation to liberate
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Italy from the Barbarians. Having carefully considered the subject of the above discourses,
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and wondering within myself whether the present times were propitious to a new prince,
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and whether there were elements that would give an opportunity to a wise and virtuous
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want to introduce a new order of things which would do honor to him and
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good to the people of his country, it appears to me that so many
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things concur to favor a new prince, that I never knew a time more
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fit than the present. And if, as I have said, it was
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necessary that the people of Israel should be captive so as to make manifest the
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ability of Moses, that the persons should be oppressed by Maides so as to
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discover the greatness of the soul of Cyrus, and that the Athenian should be
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dispersed to illustrate the capabilities of theseus, and at the present time, in
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order to discover the virtue of an Italian spirit, it is necessary that Italy
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should be reduced to the extremity that she is now, in that she should
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be more enslaved than the Hebrews, more oppressed than the Persians, more scattered
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than the Athenians, without head, without order, beaten, despoiled, torn
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overrun, and to have endured every kind of desolation. Although lately some spark
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may have been shown by one which made us think he was ordained by God
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for his redemption, nevertheless, it was afterwards seen, in the height of
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his career that fortune rejected him, so that Italy left as without life,
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waits for him, who shall yet heal her wounds and put an end to
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the ravaging and the plundering of Lombardy, to the swindling and taxing of the
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kingdom and of Tuscany, and cleanse those sores that for long have festered.
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It is seen how she entreats God to sends someone who shall deliver her from
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these wrongs and barbarous insolences. It is seen also that she is ready and
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willing to follow a banner if only someone will raise it. Nor is there
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to be seen at present one in whom she can place more hope than in
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your illustrious house, with its valor and fortune, favored by God and by
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the Church of which it is now chief, and which could be made the
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head of this redemption. This will not be difficult if you will recall to
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yourself the actions and lives of the men I have named. And although they
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were great and wonderful men, yet they were men, and each of them
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had no more opportunity than present offers, for their enterprises were neither more just
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nor easier than this. Nor was God more their friend than he is yours.
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Begin Note Giolano de Medici. He had just been created a cardinal by
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Leo the tenth. In fifteen twenty three, Giulano was elected pope, who
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took the title of Clement the seventh. End Note with us there is great
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justice, because that war is just, which is necessary, and arms are
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hollowed when there is no other hope. But in them here there is the
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greatest willingness. And where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
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If you will only follow those men to whom I have directed your attention
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further than this, have extraordinarily the ways of God have been manifested. Beyond
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example, the sea is divided, a cloud has led the way, the
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rock has poured forth water, it has rained manna. Everything has contributed to
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your greatness. You ought to do the rest. God is not willing to
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do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory
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which belongs to us, And it is not to be wondered at all.
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None of the above mentioned Italians have been able to accomplish all that is expected
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from your illustrious house. And if in so many revolutions in Italy, and
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in so many campaigns, it has always appeared as if military virtue were exhausted.
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This has happened, and because the old order of things was not good,
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and none of us has known how to find a new one. And
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nothing honors man more than to establish new laws and new ordinances when he himself
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has newly risen. Such things, when they are well founded and dignified,
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will make him revered and admired. And in Italy there are not wanting opportunities
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to bring such use into every form. Here there is great valor in the
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limbs whilst it fails in the head, look attentively at the duels and at
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the hand to hand combats. How superior the Italians are in strength, dexterity,
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and subtlely. But when it comes to armies they do not bear comparison.
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And this brings entirely from the inefficiency of the leaders, since those who
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are capable are not obedient, and each one seems to himself to know there
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having never been anyone so distinguished above the rest, either by valor or fortune,
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that others would yield to him. Hence it is that, for so
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long a time, and during so much fighting in the past twenty years,
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whenever there has been an army holy Italian, it has always given a poor
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account of itself. The first witness to this is il Taro. Afterwards Alessandria,
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Capua, Genoa, Valia, Bologna Maestri begin note the battles of Iltro
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fourteen ninety five, Alessandria fourteen ninety nine, Capua fifteen oh one, Genoa
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fifteen oh seven, Valia fifteen oh nine, Bologna fifteen eleven, Maystree fifteen
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thirteen. End Note If therefore, your illustrious house, which is to follow
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these remarkable men who have redeemed their country. It is necessary, before all
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things, as a true foundation for every enterprise to be provided with your own
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forces, because there can be no more faithful, truer, or better soldiers.
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And although singly they are good altogether, they will be much better when
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they find themselves commanded by their prince, honored by him, and maintained at
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his expense. Therefore, it is necessary to be prepared with such arms so
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that you can be defended against foreigners by Italian valor. And although Swiss and
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Spanish infantry may be consider it a very formidable, nevertheless there is a defect
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in both by reason of which a third order would not only be able to
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oppose them, but might be relied upon to overthrow them. For the Spaniards
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cannot resist cavalry, and the Switzers are afraid of infantry whenever they encounter them
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in close combat. Owing to this, as has been and may be seen,
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the Spaniards are unable to resist French cavalry, and the Switzers are overthrown
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by Spanish infantry. And although a complete proof of this latter it cannot be
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shown. Nevertheless, there has been some evidence of it at the Battle of
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Ravenna, when the Spanish infantry was confronted by German battalions, who follow the
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same tactics as the Swiss, when the Spaniards, by agility and body,
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and with the aid of their shields, got in under the pikes of the
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Germans and stood out of danger, able to attack, while the Germans stood
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helpless, and if the cavalry had not dashed up, all would have been
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over with them. It is possible, therefore, knowing the defects of these
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infantries, to invent a new one which will resist cavalry and not be afraid
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of infantry. This need not create a new order of arms, but a
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variation upon the old. And these are the kind of improvements which confer reputation
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and power upon a new prince. This opportunity therefore ought not to be allowed
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to pass, for letting Italy at last see her liberator appear. Nor can
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one express the love with which he would have received in all those provinces which
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would have suffered so much from these foreign scourings. With what thirst for revenge,
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with what stubborn faith, with what devotion, with what tears, what
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door would be closed to him who would refuse obedience to him, who would
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envy would hinder him, what Italian would refuse him to homage to all of
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us. This barberous dominion stinks. Let therefore, your illustrious house take up
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this charge with that courage and hope with which all just enterprises are taken,
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such that under its standard our native country may be ennobled, and under the
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auspices may be verified that saying of petrarch virtuo contralfuror trendera lame. If wel
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combat court gell antiko valore nelitali chikuorn no nancor virtue against fury shall advance the
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fight, and it in the combat soon shall put to flight, For the
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old Roman valor is not dead, nor in the Italian's breasts extinguished. Edward
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Docre, sixteen forty, end of Chapters twenty three, twenty four, twenty
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five and twenty six