Important Quotations Explained
1. At
this point one may note that men must be either pampered or annihilated.
They avenge light offenses; they cannot avenge severe ones; hence,
the harm one does to a man must be such as to obviate any fear of
revenge.
This passage from Chapter III is an
example of logical reasoning conspicuously devoid of ethical considerations.
A prince must realize that he has two options: benevolence and destruction.
Because the latter option will cause resentment among the people,
he should choose it only if he is absolutely sure there will be
no ill consequences—that the destruction he incurs will eliminate
or disable any parties that might seek to revenge themselves against
him. Feelings of pity or compassion are meaningless. Self-interest
and self-protection are in this case the motivating factors and
are to be pursued ruthlessly.
2. [P]eople
are by nature changeable. It is easy to persuade them about some
particular matter, but it is hard to hold them to that persuasion.
Hence it is necessary to provide that when they no longer believe,
they can be forced to believe.
This passage from Chapter VI is an example
of Machiavelli’s use of assumptions about human nature to justify
political action. This quotation follows a formula used throughout The
Prince: because people are X, a prince must always do Y.
Whereas Machiavelli laces his historical points with a wealth of
evidence and detail, he tends not to provide significant explanations
for many broad statements he makes about human nature. We may assume
that when Machiavelli writes a statement such as “people are by
nature changeable,” he is uttering a belief generally accepted in
sixteenth-century Florentine society.
3. A
prince must have no other objective, no other thought, nor take
up any profession but that of war, its methods and its discipline,
for that is the only art expected of a ruler. And it is of such
great value that it not only keeps hereditary princes in power,
but often raises men of lowly condition to that rank.
This quote from Chapter XIV highlights
warcraft as both an academic discipline that can be studied through
historical examples and as a matter of practical experience. For
Machiavelli, all affairs of government are viewed through a military
lens, because the ultimate goal of a government is self-preservation;
military defense—embracing ideas of strategy, diplomacy, and geography—is
the means by which governments preserve themselves. Machiavelli does
not conceive of the prince as a man skilled in many disciplines, but
rather as one whose sole responsibility is to ensure the stability of
the state that he governs.
4. Only
the expenditure of one’s own resources is harmful; and, indeed,
nothing feeds upon itself as liberality does. The more it is indulged,
the fewer are the means to indulge it further. As a consequence,
a prince becomes poor and contemptible or, to escape poverty, becomes
rapacious and hateful. Of all the things he must guard against,
hatred and contempt come first, and liberality leads to both. Therefore it
is better to have a name for miserliness, which breeds disgrace
without hatred, than, in pursuing a name for liberality, to resort
to rapacity, which breeds both disgrace and hatred.
This passage from Chapter XVI illustrates
Machiavelli’s attitude toward virtue and statecraft. Machiavelli
advises the prince to disregard the principles of virtue when acting
on behalf of his state. Instead, while it is desirable for a prince
to act virtuously when he can, he should never let perceptions of
virtue interfere with statecraft. Even though generosity seems admirable,
it is ultimately detrimental to the state, and therefore should
be avoided. A prince will never be hated for lack of virtue, he
will be hated only if he fails in his duty to maintain the state.
Virtuous action, in that it often promotes self-sacrifice, often
conflicts with that duty.
5. Here
a question arises: whether it is better to be loved than feared,
or the reverse. The answer is, of course, that it would be best
to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together,
anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared
than in being loved. . . . Love endures by a bond which men, being
scoundrels, may break whenever it serves their advantage to do so;
but fear is supported by the dread of pain, which is ever present.
This passage from Chapter XVII contains
perhaps the most famous of Machiavelli’s statements. Often, his
argument that it is better to be feared than loved is taken at face
value to suggest that The Prince is a handbook
for dictators and tyrants. But a closer reading reveals that Machiavelli’s
argument is a logical extension of his assessments of human nature
and virtue. In the first place, people will become disloyal if circumstances
warrant. In the second, the prince’s ultimate goal is to maintain
the state, which requires the obedience of the people. From these
two points, it follows that between benevolence and cruelty, the
latter is the more reliable. Machiavelli never advocates the use
of cruelty for its own sake, only in the interests of the ultimate
end of statecraft.
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