Machiavelli
The Prince
18
In
What Way Princes Must Keep Faith
How
laudable it is for a prince to keep good faith and live with integrity,
and not with astuteness, every one knows. Still the experience of our
times shows those princes to have done great things who have had little
regard for good faith, and have been able by astuteness to confuse men’s
brains, and who have ultimately overcome those who have made loyalty their
foundation.
You
must know, then, that there are two methods of fighting, the one by law,
the other by force: the first method is that of men, the second of beasts;
but as the first method is often insufficient, one must have recourse to
the second. It is therefore necessary for a prince to know well how to use
both the beast and the man. This was covertly taught to rulers by ancient
writers, who relate how Achilles and many others of those ancient princes
were given to Chiron the centaur to be brought up and educated under his
discipline. The parable of this semi-animal, semi-human teacher is meant
to indicate that a prince must know how to use both natures, and that the
one without the other is not durable.
A
prince being thus obliged to know well how to act as a beast must imitate
the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from traps, and
the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to
recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves. Those that wish to be only
lions do not understand this. Therefore, a prudent ruler ought not to keep
faith when by so doing it would be against his interest and when the
reasons which made him bind himself no longer exist. If men were all good,
this precept would not be a good one; but as they are bad, and would not
observe their faith with you, so you are not bound to keep faith with
them. Nor have legitimate grounds ever failed a prince who wished to show
colourable excuse for the non-fulfillment of his promise. Of this one
could furnish an infinite number of modern examples, and show how many
times peace has been broken, and how many promises rendered worthless, by
the faithlessness of princes, and those that have been best able to
imitate the fox have succeeded best. But it is necessary to be able to
disguise this character well, and to be a great feigner and dissembler;
and men are so simple and so ready to obey present necessities, that one
who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.
I
will only mention one modern instance. Alexander VI did nothing else but
deceive men, he thought of nothing else, and found the occasion for it; no
man was ever more able to give assurances, or affirmed things with
stronger oaths, and no man observed them less; however, he always
succeeded in his deceptions, as he well knew this aspect of things.
It
is not, therefore, necessary for a prince to have all the above-named
qualities, but it is very necessary to seem to have them. I would even be
bold to say that to possess them and always to observe them is dangerous,
but to appear to possess them is useful. Thus it is well to seem merciful,
faithful, humane, sincere, religious, and also to be so; but you must have
the mind so disposed that when it is needful to be otherwise you may be
able to change to the opposite qualities. And it must be understood that a
prince, and especially a new prince, cannot observe all those things which
are considered good in men, being often obliged, in order to maintain the
state, to act against faith, against charity, against humanity, and
against religion. And, therefore, he must have a mind disposed to adapt
itself according to the wind, and as the variations of fortune dictate,
and, as I said before, not deviate from what is good, if possible, but be
able to do evil if constrained.
A
prince must take great care that nothing goes out of his mouth which is
not full of the above-named five qualities, and, to see and hear him, he
should seem to be all mercy, faith, integrity, humanity, and religion. And
nothing is more necessary than to seem to have this last quality, for men
in general judge more by the eyes than by the hands, for every one can
see, but very few have to feel. Everybody sees what you appear to be, few
feel what you are, and those few will not dare to oppose themselves to the
many, who have the majesty of the state to defend them; and in the actions
of men, and especially of princes, from which there is no appeal, the end
justifies the means. Let a prince therefore aim at conquering and
maintaining the state, and the means will always be judged honourable and
praised by every one, for the vulgar is always taken by appearances and
the issue of the event; and the world consists only of the vulgar, and the
few who are not vulgar are isolated when the many have a rallying point in
the prince. A certain prince of the present time, whom it is well not to
name, never does anything but preach peace and good faith, but he is
really a great enemy to both, and either of them, had he observed them,
would have lost him state or reputation on many occasions.