“For although the act condemns the doer, the end may justify him…” – Niccolò Machiavelli
Today we share the words of Italian Renaissance political thinker Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) from his famous work ‘The Prince’, written in 1513 but first published in 1532, five years after his death. According to Machiavelli, power is always up for grabs – whether by treachery or by force. Therefore, “sensible” rulers should be willing to use any means necessary to win and then maintain control. In fact, winning and holding political power is possible only if a leader is ready to act outside the codes of morality.
A Top Level Review Of ‘The Prince’
‘The Prince’ is a slim volume that became a scandal for centuries. From start to finish, we find in ‘The Prince’ a man maneuvering through an all-consuming political environment where what is at stake is survival – anything else is luxury. Presented as problem and then solution, circumstance and then strategy, cause and then effect, ‘The Prince’ represents Machiavelli’s considerations on how to win power and, above all, how to hold onto it.
According to some, ‘The Prince’ is a cautionary tale about how politics really works, the underlying intention of which is to deprive those who hold power of dignity and to teach the lower classes the strengths of unification as a citizen army. To others, ‘The Prince’ presents leadership and nation-building as creative processes that should be judged not morally, but aesthetically. Regardless of one’s view on ‘The Prince’, one cannot help but consider, after digesting Machiavelli’s work, if politicians today utilize ‘The Prince’ as a guide to rationalizing and justifying their own, immoral, acts to staying in power.
Quotes From ‘The Prince’
Quotes are categorized by topics and excerpted from the 2014 Penguin Classics edition of ‘The Prince’, which features both a translation and introduction by Tim Parks.
Autonomy
“… since people decide for themselves whether to love a ruler or not, while it’s the ruler who decides whether they’re going to fear him, a sensible man will base his power on what he controls, not on what others have freedom to choose.” – Seventeen – Cruelty And Compassion. Whether It’s Better To Be Feared Or Loved
“There are actually three kinds of mind: one grasps things unaided, the second sees what another has grasped, the third grasps nothing and sees nothing. The first kind is extremely valuable, the second valuable, the third useless.” – Twenty-Two – A Ruler’s Ministers
Groups
“… if a ruler can’t avoid hatred altogether, he must first try to avoid the hatred of the country as a whole, and when that proves impossible he must do everything he can to escape the hatred of the classes that wield the most power.” – Nineteen – Avoiding Contempt And Hatred
“… a ruler should offer incentives… to whoever plans to bring prosperity to his city or state. Then at the right times of the year he should entertain people with shows and festivals. And since every city is divided into guilds and districts, he should respect these groups and go to their meetings from time to time, showing what a humane and generous person he is, though without ever forgetting the authority of his position, something he must always keep to the fore.”- Twenty – Whether Fortresses And Other Strategies Rulers Frequently Adopt Are Useful
Social Capital
“… it’s fear or hatred that makes men attack each other… Anyone who thinks that an important man will forget past grievances just because he’s received some new promotion must think again.” – Seven – States Won By Lucky Circumstance And Someone Else’s Armed Forces
“When people are treated well by someone they thought was hostile they respond with even greater loyalty.” – Nine – Monarchy With Public Support
“A man will sooner forget the death of his father than the loss of his inheritance.” – Seventeen – Cruelty And Compassion. Whether It’s Better To Be Feared Or Loved
“… it’s hard to conspire against a man who is well thought of.” – Nineteen – Avoiding Contempt And Hatred
“… when there is no threat from outside, a ruler must take care that his subjects don’t start conspiring against him… one of the most powerful preventative measures against conspiracies is simply not being hated by a majority of the people.’ – Nineteen – Avoiding Contempt And Hatred
“Nothing wins a ruler respect like great military victories and a display of remarkable personal qualities.” – Twenty-One – What A Ruler Should Do To Win Respect
“… a winner doesn’t want half-hearted friends…” – Twenty – Whether Fortresses And Other Strategies Rulers Frequently Adopt Are Useful
“A ruler must… show that he admires achievements in others, giving work to men of ability and rewarding people who excel in this or that craft.” – Twenty – Whether Fortresses And Other Strategies Rulers Frequently Adopt Are Useful
“… the only way to guard against flattery is to have people understand that you don’t mind them telling you the truth. But when anyone and everyone can tell you the truth, you lose respect. So the sensible ruler must find a middle way, choosing intelligent men for ministers and giving them and only them the right to tell him the truth, and only on the issues he asks about, not in general… a ruler must always take advice, but only when he wants it, not when others want to give it to him.” – Twenty-Three – Avoiding Flatterers
“… men will always be out to trick you unless you force them to be honest… a ruler isn’t smart because he’s getting proper advice; on the contrary, it’s his good sense that makes the right advice possible.” – Twenty-Three – Avoiding Flatterers
Sovereignty
“… memories fade and likewise motives for change; upheaval, on the contrary, always leaves the scaffolding for building further change.” – Two – Hereditary Monarchies
“… however strong your armies, you’ll always need local support to occupy a new territory… when a ruler occupies a state in an area that has a different language, different customs and different institutions… the most effective solution is for the new ruler to go and live there himself. This will improve security and make the territory more stable… Another advantage is that the new territory won’t be plundered by your officials.” – Three – Mixed Monarchies
“It’s worth noting that in general you must either pamper people or destroy them; harm them just a little and they’ll hit back; harm them seriously and they won’t be able to. So if you’re going to do people harm, make sure you needn’t worry about their reaction.”- Three – Mixed Monarchies
“… you must never fail to respond to trouble just to avoid war, because in the end you won’t avoid it, you’ll just be putting it off to your enemy’s advantage.” – Three – Mixed Monarchies
“… to help another ruler to grow powerful is to prepare your own ruin.” – Three – Mixed Monarchies
“If you conquer a city accustomed to self-government and opt not to destroy it you can expect it to destroy you… if the population hasn’t been routed and dispersed so that its freedoms and traditions are quite forgotten, they will rise up to fight for those principles at the first opportunity.” – Five – How To Govern Cities And States That Were Previously Self-Governing
“… nothing is harder to organize, more likely to fail, or more dangerous to see through, than the introduction of a new system of government.” – Six – States Won By The New Ruler’s Own Forces And Abilities
“… any new ruler bringing in changes will have to deal with huge obstacles and dangers, mostly in the early stages, and must overcome them with his own abilities. Once he’s done that and eliminated those who resented his achievements, so that people start to respect and admire him, then he can enjoy his power in safety and will live honoured and fulfilled.” – Six – States Won By The New Ruler’s Own Forces And Abilities
“A ruler must have the people on his side…the ruler must work out a situation where his citizens will always need both his government and him, however well or badly things are going. Then they will always be loyal.” – Nine – Monarchy With Public Support
“If a ruler has built good fortifications and managed his relationship with his subjects… his enemies will always think twice before attacking him. People are always wary of projects that present obvious difficulties, and attacking a well-defended town and a ruler whose subjects don’t hate him is never an easy proposition.” – Ten – Assessing A State’s Strength
“… the main foundations of any state, whether it be new, or old, or a new territory acquired by an old regime, are good laws and good armed forces.” – Twelve – Different Kinds Of Armies And A Consideration Of Mercenary Forces
“Mercenaries… are useless and dangerous… Courageous with friends and cowardly with enemies, they have no fear of God and keep no promises… in peacetime they plunder you and in wartime they let the enemy plunder you…” – Twelve – Different Kinds Of Armies And A Consideration Of Mercenary Forces
“Auxiliaries may be efficient and useful when it comes to achieving their own ends, but they are almost always counterproductive for those who invite them in, because if they lose, you lose too, and if they win, you are at their mercy.” – Thirteen – Auxiliaries, Combined Forces And Citizen Armies
“…a victory won with foreign forces is not a real victory at all.”- Thirteen – Auxiliaries, Combined Forces And Citizen Armies
“… no state is secure without its own army… There is nothing so weak and unstable as a reputation for power that is not backed up by its own army.” – Thirteen – Auxiliaries, Combined Forces And Citizen Armies
“A ruler, then, must have no other aim or consideration nor seek to develop any other vocation outside war, the organization of the army and military discipline… the thing most likely to bring about a ruler’s downfall is his neglect of the art of war, the thing most likely to win him power is becoming an expert in it.” – Fourteen – A Ruler And His Army
“Since a ruler has to be able to act the beast, he should take on the traits of the fox and the lion; the lion can’t defend itself against snares and the fox can’t defend itself from wolves. So you have to play the fox to see the snares and the lion to scare off the wolves.” – Eighteen – A Ruler And His Promises
“… people look at the end result. So if a leader does what it takes to win power and keep it, his methods will always be reckoned honourable and widely praised. The crowd is won over by appearances and final results. And the world is all crowd: the dissenting few find no space so long as the majority have any grounds at all for their opinions.”- Eighteen – A Ruler And His Promises
”… if you have a good army you’ll always have good allies.” – Nineteen – Avoiding Contempt And Hatred
“… put the people before the army, because the people are more powerful.” – Nineteen – Avoiding Contempt And Hatred
“… when the opportunity presents itself a smart ruler will shrewdly provoke hostility so that he can then increase his reputation by crushing it.” – Twenty – Whether Fortresses And Other Strategies Rulers Frequently Adopt Are Useful
“… a ruler must never ally himself with someone more powerful in order to attack his enemies… when you win you’ll be at your ally’s mercy…” – Twenty – Whether Fortresses And Other Strategies Rulers Frequently Adopt Are Useful
Trust
“… a leader must think carefully before believing and responding to certain allegations and not get frightened over nothing. He should go about things coolly, cautiously and humanely: if he’s too trusting, he’ll get careless, and if he trusts no one he’ll make himself unbearable.” – Seventeen – Cruelty And Compassion. Whether It’s Better To Be Feared Or Loved
“Rulers, and especially those new to power, have found that men they initially doubted prove more loyal and useful than those they trusted.” – Twenty – Whether Fortresses And Other Strategies Rulers Frequently Adopt Are Useful
“A minister running a state must never think of himself, only of the ruler, and should concentrate exclusively on the ruler’s business. To make sure he does so, the ruler, for his part, must take an interest in the minister, grant him wealth and respect, oblige him and share honours and appointments with him. That way the minister will see that he can’t survive without the ruler. He’ll have so many honours he won’t want any more, so much wealth he won’t look for more, and so many appointments that he’ll guard against any change of the status quo. When rulers and their ministers arrange their relationships this way, they can trust each other.” – Twenty-Two – A Ruler’s Ministers
Virtues
“Cruelty well used (if we can ever speak well of something bad) is short-lived and decisive, no more than is necessary to secure your position and then stop; you don’t go on being cruel but use the power it has given you to deliver maximum benefits to your subjects. Cruelty is badly used when you’re not drastic enough at the beginning but grow increasingly cruel later on, rather than easing off… when you take hold of a state, you must assess how much violence and cruelty will be necessary and get it over with at once, so as not to have to be cruel on a regular basis. When you’ve stopped using violence your subjects will be reassured and you can then win them over with generosity… So get the violence over with as soon as possible; that way there’ll be less time for people to taste its bitterness and they’ll be less hostile. Favours, on the other hand, should be given out slowly, one by one, so that they can be properly savoured.” – Eight – States Won By Crime
“… there is such a gap between how people actually live and how they ought to live that anyone who declines to behave as people do, in order to behave as they should, is schooling himself for catastrophe and had better forget personal security: if you always want to play the good man in a world where most people are not good, you’ll end up badly. Hence, if a ruler wants to survive, he’ll have to learn to stop being good, at least when the occasion demands… he mustn’t be concerned about the bad reputation that comes with those negative qualities that are almost essential if he is to hold on to power.” – Fifteen – What Men And Particularly Rulers Are Praised And Blamed For
“… being generous just to be seen to be so will damage you. Generosity practised out of real good will, as it should be, risks passing unnoticed and you won’t escape a reputation for meanness… Since a ruler can’t be generous and show it without putting himself at risk, if he’s sensible he won’t mind getting a reputation for meanness. With time, when people see that his penny pinching means he doesn’t need to raise taxes and can defend the country against attack and embark on campaigns without putting a burden on his people, he’ll increasingly be seen as generous – generous to those he takes nothing from, which is to say almost everybody, and mean to those who get nothing from him, which is to say very few… ” – Sixteen – Generosity And Meanness
“For the ruler already in power generosity is dangerous; for the man seeking power it is essential.” – Sixteen – Generosity And Meanness
“Either a ruler is spending his own and his subjects’ money, or someone else’s. When the money is his own or his subjects’, he should go easy; when it’s someone else’s, he should be as lavish as he can… A ruler leading his armies and living on plunder, pillage and extortion is using other people’s money and had better be generous with it… What’s not your own or your subjects’ can be given away freely… Spending other people’s money doesn’t lower your standing – it raises it. It’s only spending your own money that puts you at risk. Nothing consumes itself so much as generosity, because while you practise it you’re losing the wherewithal to go on practising it. Either you fall into poverty and are despised for it, or, to avoid poverty, you become grasping and hateful. Above all else a king must guard against being despised and hated. Generosity leads to both.”- Sixteen – Generosity And Meanness
“A ruler mustn’t worry about being labeled cruel when it’s a question of keeping his subjects loyal and united; using a little exemplary severity, he will prove more compassionate than the leader whose excessive compassion leads to public disorder, muggings and murder.” – Seventeen – Cruelty And Compassion. Whether It’s Better To Be Feared Or Loved
“But of all rulers, a man new to power simply cannot avoid a reputation for cruelty.” – Seventeen – Cruelty And Compassion. Whether It’s Better To Be Feared Or Loved
“Love binds when someone recognizes he should be grateful to you, but, since men are a sad lot, gratitude is forgotten the moment it’s inconvenient.” – Seventeen – Cruelty And Compassion. Whether It’s Better To Be Feared Or Loved
“…a sensible leader cannot and must not keep his word if by doing so he puts himself at risk…” – Eighteen – A Ruler And His Promises
“So, a leader doesn’t have to possess all the virtuous qualities… but it’s absolutely imperative that he seems to possess them… a ruler must be careful not to say anything that doesn’t appear to be inspired by the five virtues… he must seem and sound wholly compassionate, wholly loyal, wholly humane, wholly honest and wholly religious. There is nothing more important than appearing to be religious.” – Eighteen – A Ruler And His Promises
“You’ll be held in contempt… if you’re seen as changeable, superficial, effeminate, fearful or indecisive. So a ruler must avoid those qualities like so many stumbling blocks and act in such a way that everything he does gives an impression of greatness, spirit, seriousness and strength.” – Nineteen – Avoiding Contempt And Hatred
“Victories are never so decisive that the winner can override every principle, justice in particular.” – Twenty – Whether Fortresses And Other Strategies Rulers Frequently Adopt Are Useful
“Virtue against fury.” – Twenty-Six – An Appeal To Conquer Italy And Free It From Foreign Occupation
Final Thoughts
Nearly five centuries after Machiavelli penned these words in political exile, “The Prince” remains one of the most provocative and debated texts in political philosophy. What strikes most powerfully about these collected quotes is not their cynicism—though that reputation persists—but their unflinching realism about the nature of power and human behavior.
Machiavelli’s genius lies in his willingness to describe politics as it actually functions rather than as we might wish it to be. His observations about fear versus love, the strategic use of cruelty, and the necessity of appearing virtuous while acting pragmatically continue to resonate because they capture uncomfortable truths about leadership that transcend time and culture. Modern politicians may publicly denounce Machiavellian tactics while privately employing them, suggesting that his insights into power dynamics remain devastatingly accurate.
Yet reading these quotes in sequence reveals something often missed in casual references to Machiavelli: his deep concern for stability, order, and the welfare of the state. His seemingly amoral prescriptions arise from a moral conviction that political chaos brings suffering to ordinary people. The ruler who maintains power through calculated actions may prevent the greater cruelties of civil war, foreign invasion, or societal collapse.
Perhaps most relevant to our current moment is Machiavelli’s emphasis on the relationship between rulers and ruled. His repeated warnings about avoiding the hatred of the people, the importance of local support, and the power of public perception feel particularly prescient in an age of social media, instant communication, and populist movements – the crowd may still be “won over by appearances and final results,” but today’s crowd has unprecedented ability to organize, communicate, and challenge authority.
Whether we read “The Prince” as a manual for tyrants, a mirror held up to expose the ugliness of politics, or a pragmatic guide for navigating an imperfect world, these quotes remind us that the fundamental dynamics of power remain remarkably consistent. Human nature, with all its ambitions, fears, and contradictions, continues to shape political life just as it did in Renaissance Florence.
In the end, Machiavelli forces us to confront difficult questions: Can effective leadership exist without moral compromise? Is it better for a leader to be feared or loved when they cannot be both? How much deception is acceptable in service of the greater good? These questions have no easy answers, which is precisely why “The Prince” endures—not as a definitive guide to political action, but as an essential text for understanding the eternal tensions between power and principle, pragmatism and idealism, the ruler and the ruled.
Thanks for reading!