Machiavelli
The Prince

1 The Various Kinds of Government
and the Ways by Which They Are Established
2 Of Hereditary Monarchies
3 Of Mixed Monarchies
4 Why the Kingdom of Darius, Occupied by Alexander,
Did Not Rebel Against the Successors of the Latter
After His Death
5 The Way to Govern Cities or Dominions That,
Previous to Being Occupied, Lived Under Their Own Laws
6 Of New Dominions Which Have
Been Acquired by One’s Own Arms and Ability
7 Of New Dominions Acquired
by the Power of Others or by Fortune
8 Of Those Who Have Attained
the Position of Prince by Villainy
9 Of the Civic Principality
10 How the Strength of All States Should Be Measured
11 Of Ecclesiastical Principalities
12 The Different Kinds of Militia and Mercenary Soldiers
l3 Of Auxiliary, Mixed, and Native Troops
14 The Duties of a Prince with Regard to the Militia
15 Of the Things for Which Men,
and Especially Princes, Are Praised or Blamed
16 Of Liberality and Niggardliness
17 Of Cruelty and Clemency,
and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved or Feared
18 In What Way Princes Must Keep Faith
19 That We Must Avoid Being Despised and Hated
20 Whether Fortresses and Other Things
Which Princes Often Contrive Are Useful or Injurious
21 How a Prince Must Act in Order to Gain Reputation
22 Of the Secretaries of Princes
23 How Flatterers Must Be Shunned
24 Why the Princes of Italy Have Lost Their States
25 How Much Fortune Can Do
in Human Affairs and How It May Be Opposed
26 Exhortation to Liberate Italy from the Barbarians
 

To Lorenzo The Magnificent,
Son of Piero Di Medici

It is customary for those who wish to gain the favour of a prince to endeavour to do so by offering him gifts of those things which they hold most precious, or in which they know him to take especial delight. In this way princes are often presented with horses, arms, cloth of gold, gems, and such-like ornaments worthy of their grandeur. In my desire, however, to offer to Your Highness some humble testimony of my devotion,
I have been unable to find among my possessions anything which I hold so dear or esteem so highly as that knowledge of the deeds of great men which I have acquired through a long experience of modern events and a constant study of the past.

With the utmost diligence I have long pondered and scrutinized the actions of the great, and now I offer the results to Your Highness within the compass of a small volume: and although I deem this work unworthy of Your Highness’s acceptance, yet my confidence in your humanity assures me that you will receive it with favour, knowing that it is not in my power to offer you a greater gift than that of enabling you to understand in a very short time all those things which I have learnt at the cost of privation and danger in the course of many years. I have not sought to adorn my work with long phrases or high-sounding words or any of those superficial attractions and ornaments with which many writers seek to embellish their material, as I desire no honour for my work but such as the novelty and gravity of its subject may justly deserve. Nor will it, I trust, be deemed presumptuous on the part of a man of humble and obscure condition to attempt to discuss and direct the government of princes; for in the same way that landscape painters station themselves in the valleys in order to draw  mountains or high ground, and ascend an eminence in order to get a good view of the plains, so it is necessary to be a prince to know thoroughly the nature of the people, and one of the populace to know the nature of princes.

May I trust, therefore, that Your Highness will accept this little gift in the spirit in which it is offered; and if Your Highness will deign to peruse it, you will recognize in it my ardent desire that you may attain to that grandeur which fortune and your own merits presage for you.

And should Your Highness gaze down from the summit of your lofty position towards this humble spot, you will recognize the great and unmerited sufferings inflicted on me by a cruel fate.