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10 - The Prince - Machiavelli · The Philosophy Insights Collection

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Chapter seventeen, concerning cruelty and clemency, and whether it is better to be
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loved than feared. Coming now to the other qualities mentioned above, I say
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that every prince ought to desire to be considered clement and not cruel. Nevertheless,
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he ought to take care not to misuse his clemency. Cesar Borgia was
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considered cruel, notwithstanding his cruelty, reconciled Romanga, unified it, and restored
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it to peace and loyalty. And if this be rightly considered, he will
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be seen to have been much more merciful than the Florentine people, who,
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to avoid a reputation for cruelty, permitted Pistoia to be destroyed. Therefore,
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a prince, so long as he keeps his subjects united and loyal, ought
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not to mind the reproach of cruelty, because with a few examples, he
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will be more merciful than those who, through too much mercy, allow disorders
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to arise, from which follows murders or robberies, for these are wont to
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injure the whole people, whilst those executions which originate with the prince offend the
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individual only. And of all princes it is impossible for the new prince to
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avoid the imputation of cruelty, owing to the new states being full of dangers.
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Hence, Virgil, through the mouth of Dido, excuses the inhumanity of
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her reign, owing to its being new, saying res dura et regina novitas
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metalia cogunt molieri e late fines costode tueri translation, against my will, my
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fate, a throne unsettled and an infant state. Bid me to defend my
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realms with all my powers, and guard with these severities my shores. Nevertheless,
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he ought to be slow to believe and to act, nor should he
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himself show fear, but proceed in a temperate manner, with prudence and humanity,
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so that too much confidence may not make him incautious, and too much
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distrust render him intolerable. Upon this a question arises whether it be better to
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be loved than feared, or feared than loved. It may be answered that
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one should wish to be both, But because it is difficult to unite them
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in one person, it is much safer to be feared than loved. When
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of the two either must be dispensed with, because this is to be asserted
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in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly,
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covetous, and as long as you succeed, they are yours entirely.
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They will offer you their blood, property, life, and children, as
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is said above, when the need is far distant, But when it approaches,
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they turn against you. And that prince, who relying entirely on their
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promises, has neglected other precautions, is ruined. Because friendships that are obtained
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by payments and not by greatness or nobility of mind, may indeed be earned,
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but they are not secured, and in time of need cannot be relied
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upon, And men have less scrupulous offending one who is beloved than one who
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is feared. For love is preserved by the link of obligation, which,
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owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage.
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But fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails. Nevertheless,
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a prince ought to inspire fear in such a way that if he does
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not win love, he avoids hatred, because he can endure very well being
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feared, whilst he is not hated, which will always be as long as
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he abstains from the property of his citizens and subjects, and from their women.
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But when it is necessary for him to proceed against the life of someone,
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he must do it on proper justification and for manifest cause. But above
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all things, he must keep his hands off the property of others, because
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men more quickly forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony.
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Besides, pretexts for taking away the property are never wanting, for he
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who has once begun to live by robbery will always find presects for seizing what
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belongs to others. But reasons for taking life, on the contrary, are
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more difficult to find, and sooner lapse. But when a prince is with
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his army and has under control a multitude of soldiers, then it is quite
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necessary for him to disregard the reputation of cruelty, for without it he would
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never hold his army united or dispose to its duties. Among the wonderful deeds
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of Hannibal, this one is enumerated that, having led an enormous army composed
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of many various races of men, to fight in foreign lands, no dissensions
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arose either among them or against the prince whether in his bad or in his
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good fortune. This arose from nothing else than his inhuman cruelty, which,
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with his boundless valor, made him revered and terrible in the sight of his
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soldiers. But without that cruelty, his other virtues were not sufficient to produce
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this effect, and short sighted writers admire his deeds from one point of view
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and from another condemned the principal cause of them. That it is true his
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other virtues would not have been sufficient for him may be proved by the case
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of Scipio, that most excellent man, not only of his own times,
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but within the memory of man against whom nevertheless his army rebelled. In Spain.
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This arose from nothing but his too great forbearance, which gave his soldiers
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more license than is consistent with military discipline. For this he was upbraided,
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but in the Senate by Fabius Maximus and called the corruptor of the Roman soldiery.
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The Locrians were laid waste by a legate of Scipio, yet they were
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not avenged by him, nor was the insolence of the legate punished, owing
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entirely to his easy nature. Insomuch that someone in the Senate wishing to execute
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him, said, there were many men who knew much better how not to
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err than to correct the errors of others. Disposition, if he had been
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continued in the command, would have destroyed in time the fame and glory of
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Scipio. But he, being under the control of the Senate, this injurious
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characteristic not only concealed itself, but contributed to his glory. Returning to the
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question of being feared or love, I come to the conclusion that men loving
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according to their own will, and fearing according to that of the prince.
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A wise prince should establish himself on that which is in his own control,
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and not in that of others. He must endeavor only to avoid hatred,
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as is noted Chapter eighteen concerning the way in which princes should keep faith.
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Note, the present chapter has given greater offense than any other portune of Machiavelli's
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writings. According to Bird, every one admits how praiseworthy it is in a
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prince to keep faith and to live with integrity, and not with craft.
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Nevertheless, our experience has been that those princes who have done great things have
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held good faith of little account, and have known how to circumvent the intellect
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of men by craft, and in the end have overcome those who relied on
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their word. You must know that there are two ways of contesting, the
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one by the law, the other by force. The first method is proper
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to men, the second to beasts. But because the first is frequently not
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sufficient, it is necessary to have recourse to the second. Therefore, it
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is necessary for a prince to understand how to avail himself of the beast and
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the man. This has been figuratively taught to princes by ancient writers, who
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describe how Achilles and many other princes of old were given to the centaur Chiron,
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to nurse, who brought them up in his discipline, which means solely
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that as they had for a teacher, one who was half beast and half
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man, so it is necessary for a prince to know how to make use
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of both natures, and that one without the other is not durable. A
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prince, therefore, being compelled knowingly to adopt the beast, ought to choose
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the fox and the lion. Because the lion cannot defend himself against snakes,
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and the fox cannot defend himself against wolves. Therefore, it is necessary to
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be a fox to discover the snares and the lion to terrify the wolves.
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Those who rely simply on the lion did not understand what they are about.
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Therefore, wise Lord cannot nor not he to keep faith when such observance may
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be turned against him, and when the reasons that caused him to pledge it
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exists no longer. If men were entirely good, this precept would not hold.
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But because they are bad and will not keep faith with you, you
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too are not bound to observe it with them. Nor will there ever be
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wanting to a prince, legitimate reasons to excuse this non observance of this endless
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Modern examples could be given shown how many treaties and engagements have been made void
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and of no effect through the faithlessness of princes. And he who has known
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how best to employ the fox has succeeded best. But it is necessary to
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know well how to disguise this characteristic and to be a great pretender and dissembler.
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And men are so simple and so subject to present necessities, that he
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who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived.
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Recent example, I cannot pass over in silence Alexander the sixth did nothing
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else but deceive men, nor ever thought of doing otherwise, and he always
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found victims. For there never was a man who had greater power in asserting,
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or who with greater oaths would affirm a thing, yet would observe it
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less. Nevertheless, his deceits always succeeded according to his wishes, because he
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well understood this side of mankind. Therefore, it is unnecessary for a prince
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to have all the good qualities I have enumerated, but it is very necessary
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to appear to have them. And I shall dare to say this also,
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that to have them and always to observe them is injurious, and that to
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appear to have them is useful. To appear merciful, faithful, humane,
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religious, upright, and to be so, but with a mind so framed
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that should you require not to be so, you may be able and know
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how to change the opposite. And you have to understand this, that a
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prince, especially a new one, cannot observe all those things for which men
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are esteemed, being often forced in order to maintain the state, to act
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contrary to fidelity, friendship, humanity and religion. Therefore, it is necessary
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for him to have a mind ready to turn itself accordingly as the winds and
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variations of fortune force it. Yet, as I have said above, not
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to diverge from the good if he can avoid doing so, but if compelled,
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then to know how to set about it. A note on fidelity from
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the translator contrary to fidelity or faith contro alla fede and tuto fede altogether faithful
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in the next paragraph. It is noteworthy that these two phrases contro alla fede
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and tuto fede were omitted in the Testina edition, which was published with the
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sanction of the papal authorities. It may be that the meaning attached to the
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word fede was the faith i e. The Catholic creed, and not as
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rendered here fidelity and faithful. Observed that the world religione was suffered to stand
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in the text of the Testina, because being used to signify indifferently every shade
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of belief, as witness the religion, a phrase inevitably employed to designate the
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Huguenot heresy South. In his Sermons nine page sixty nine, Edition eighteen forty
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three, comments on this passage as follows that that great patron and Corphaeus of
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this tribe. Nicolo Macchiavel laid down this for a master rule in his political
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scheme, that the show of religion was helpful to the politician, but the
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reality of it hurtful and pernicious. End of translator's note. This t reason
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a prince ought to take care that he never lets anything slip from his lips
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that is not replete with the above named five qualities, that he may appear
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to him who sees and hears him altogether merciful, faithful, humane, upright,
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and religious. There is nothing more necessary to appear to have than this
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last quality, inasmuch as men judged generally more by the eye than by the
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hand. Because it belongs to everybody to see you, to few to come
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in touch with you. Everyone sees what you appear to be, few really
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know what you are. And those few dare not oppose themselves to the opinion
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of the many, who have the majesty of the state to defend them.
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And in the actions of all men, and especially of princes, which it
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is not prudent to challenge, one judges by the result. For that reason,
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let a prince have the credit of conquering and holding his state, the
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means will always be considered honest, and he will be praised by everybody,
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because the vulgar are always taken by what thing seems to be and what comes
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of it. And in the world there are only the vulgar, for the
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few find a place there only when the many have no ground to rest on.
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One prince of the present time, who it is not well to name,
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never preaches anything else but peace and good faith, and to both he
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is most hostile and either. If he had kept it, would have deprived
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him of reputation and kingdom many a time. Note from the translator on this
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Prince Ferdinand of Arragon. When Machiavelli was writing The Prince, it would have
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been clearly impossible to mention Ferdinand's name here without giving offense from birds Ill TRINCHIPI,
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page three O eight. End of translator's note, end of chapter You're eighteen