The Prince
by Nicolo Machiavelli
Chapter XVIII1
Concerning the way in which princes should keep
faith
Every one admits how praiseworthy it is
in a prince to keep faith, and to live with integrity and
not with craft. Nevertheless our experience has been that
those princes who have done great things have held good
faith of little account, and have known how to circumvent
the intellect of men by craft, and in the end have overcome
those who have relied on their word. You must know there are
two ways of contesting,2
the one by the law, the other by force; the first method is
proper to men, the second to beasts; but because the first
is frequently not sufficient, it is necessary to have
recourse to the second. Therefore it is necessary for a
prince to understand how to avail himself of the beast and
the man. This has been figuratively taught to princes by
ancient writers, who describe how Achilles and many other
princes of old were given to the Centaur Chiron to nurse,
who brought them up in his discipline; which means solely
that, as they had for a teacher one who was half beast and
half man, so it is necessary for a prince to know how to
make use of both natures, and that one without the other is
not durable. A prince, therefore, being compelled knowingly
to adopt the beast, ought to choose the fox and the lion;
because the lion cannot defend himself against snares and
the fox cannot defend himself against wolves. Therefore, it
is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares and a lion
to terrify the wolves. Those who rely simply on the lion do
not understand what they are about. Therefore a wise lord
cannot, nor ought he to, keep faith when such observance may
be turned against him, and when the reasons that caused him
to pledge it exist no longer. If men were entirely good this
precept would not hold, but because they are bad, and will
not keep faith with you, you too are not bound to observe it
with them. Nor will there ever be wanting to a prince
legitimate reasons to excuse this non-observance. Of this
endless modern examples could be given, showing how many
treaties and engagements have been made void and of no
effect through the faithlessness of princes; and he who has
known best how to employ the fox has succeeded best.
But it is necessary to know well how to
disguise this characteristic, and to be a great pretender
and dissembler; and men are so simple, and so subject to
present necessities, that he who seeks to deceive will
always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived.
One recent example I cannot pass over in silence. Alexander
the Sixth did nothing else but deceive men, nor ever thought
of doing otherwise, and he always found victims; for there
never was a man who had greater power in asserting, or who
with greater oaths would affirm a thing, yet would observe
it less; nevertheless his deceits always succeeded according
to his wishes,3
because he well understood this side of mankind.
Therefore it is unnecessary for a prince to have all the
good qualities I have enumerated, but it is very necessary
to appear to have them. And I shall dare to say this also,
that to have them and always to observe them is injurious,
and that to appear to have them is useful; to appear
merciful, faithful, humane, religious, upright, and to be
so, but with a mind so framed that should you require not to
be so, you may be able and know how to change to the
opposite.
And you have to understand this, that a
prince, especially a new one, cannot observe all those
things for which men are esteemed, being often forced, in
order to maintain the state, to act contrary to
fidelity,4
friendship, humanity, and religion. Therefore it is
necessary for him to have a mind ready to turn itself
accordingly as the winds and variations of fortune force it,
yet, as I have said above, not to diverge from the good if
he can avoid doing so, but, if compelled, then to know how
to set about it.
For this reason a prince ought to take care that he never
lets anything slip from his lips that is not replete with
the above-named five qualities, that he may appear to him
who sees and hears him altogether merciful, faithful,
humane, upright, and religious. There is nothing more
necessary to appear to have than this last quality, inasmuch
as men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand,
because it belongs to everybody to see you, to few to come
in touch with you. Every one sees what you appear to be, few
really know what you are, and those few dare not oppose
themselves to the opinion of the many, who have the majesty
of the state to defend them; and in the actions of all men,
and especially of princes, which it is not prudent to
challenge, one judges by the result.
For that reason, let a prince have the
credit of conquering and holding his state, the means will
always be considered honest, and he will be praised by
everybody; because the vulgar are always taken by what a
thing seems to be and by what comes of it; and in the world
there are only the vulgar, for the few find a place there
only when the many have no ground to rest on.
One prince5
of the present time, whom it is not well to name, never
preaches anything else but peace and good faith, and to both
he is most hostile, and either, if he had kept it, would
have deprived him of reputation and kingdom many a time.
1 "The present chapter has given
greater offence than any other portion of Machiavelli's
writings." Burd, "Il Principe," p. 297.
[back]
2 "Contesting," i.e. "striving for
mastery." Mr Burd points out that this passage is imitated
directly from Cicero's "De Officiis": "Nam cum sint duo
genera decertandi, unum per disceptationem, alterum per vim;
cumque illud proprium sit hominis, hoc beluarum;
confugiendum est ad posterius, si uti non licet
superiore."[back]
3 "Nondimanco sempre gli
succederono gli inganni (ad votum)." The words "ad votum"
are omitted in the Testina addition, 1550.
Alexander never did what he
said,
Cesare never said what he did.
Italian Proverb. [back]
4 "Contrary to fidelity" or
"faith," "contro alla fede," and "tutto fede," "altogether
faithful," in the next paragraph. It is noteworthy that
these two phrases, "contro alla fede" and "tutto fede," were
omitted in the Testina edition, which was published with the
sanction of the papal authorities. It may be that the
meaning attached to the word "fede" was "the faith," i.e.
the Catholic creed, and not as rendered here "fidelity" and
"faithful." Observe that the word "religione" was suffered
to stand in the text of the Testina, being used to signify
indifferently every shade of belief, as witness "the
religion," a phrase inevitably employed to designate the
Huguenot heresy. South in his Sermon IX, p. 69, ed. 1843,
comments on this passage as follows: "That great patron and
Coryphaeus of this tribe, Nicolo Machiavel, laid down this
for a master rule in his political scheme: 'That the show of
religion was helpful to the politician, but the reality of
it hurtful and pernicious.'" [back]
5 Ferdinand of Aragon. "When
Machiavelli was writing 'The Prince' it would have been
clearly impossible to mention Ferdinand's name here without
giving offence." Burd's "Il Principe," p. 308.
[back]
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- The Prince
by Nicolo Machiavelli
Chapter XVII
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