CHAPTER XVIII
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, 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 nonobservance. 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 VI 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, 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
faith, 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 prince* 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.* Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.
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