The Prince and the Pauper

DESCRIPTION OF THE METHODS ADOPTED BY THE DUKE VALENTINO WHEN MURDERING VITELLOZZO VITELLI, OLIVEROTTO DA FERMO, THE SIGNOR PAGOLO, AND THE DUKE DI GRAVINA ORSINI THE LIFE OF CAS...

HOW MANY KINDS OF PRINCIPALITIES THERE ARE, AND BY WHAT MEANS THEY ARE ACQUIRED All states, all powers, that have held and hold rule over men have been and are either republics or...

CONCERNING HEREDITARY PRINCIPALITIES I will leave out all discussion on republics, inasmuch as in another place I have written of them at length, and will address myself only to p...

CONCERNING MIXED PRINCIPALITIES But the difficulties occur in a new principality. And firstly, if it be not entirely new, but is, as it were, a member of a state which, taken coll...

WHY THE KINGDOM OF DARIUS, CONQUERED BY ALEXANDER, DID NOT REBEL AGAINST THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER AT HIS DEATH Considering the difficulties which men have had to hold to a newl...

CONCERNING THE WAY TO GOVERN CITIES OR PRINCIPALITIES WHICH LIVED UNDER THEIR OWN LAWS BEFORE THEY WERE ANNEXED Whenever those states which have been acquired as stated have been ...

CONCERNING NEW PRINCIPALITIES WHICH ARE ACQUIRED BY ONE’S OWN ARMS AND ABILITY Let no one be surprised if, in speaking of entirely new principalities as I shall do, I adduce the h...

CONCERNING NEW PRINCIPALITIES WHICH ARE ACQUIRED EITHER BY THE ARMS OF OTHERS OR BY GOOD FORTUNE Those who solely by good fortune become princes from being private citizens have l...

CONCERNING THOSE WHO HAVE OBTAINED A PRINCIPALITY BY WICKEDNESS Although a prince may rise from a private station in two ways, neither of which can be entirely attributed to fortu...

CONCERNING A CIVIL PRINCIPALITY But coming to the other point—where a leading citizen becomes the prince of his country, not by wickedness or any intolerable violence, but by the ...

CONCERNING THE WAY IN WHICH THE STRENGTH OF ALL PRINCIPALITIES OUGHT TO BE MEASURED It is necessary to consider another point in examining the character of these principalities: t...

CONCERNING ECCLESIASTICAL PRINCIPALITIES It only remains now to speak of ecclesiastical principalities, touching which all difficulties are prior to getting possession, because th...

HOW MANY KINDS OF SOLDIERY THERE ARE, AND CONCERNING MERCENARIES Having discoursed particularly on the characteristics of such principalities as in the beginning I proposed to dis...

CONCERNING AUXILIARIES, MIXED SOLDIERY, AND ONE’S OWN Auxiliaries, which are the other useless arm, are employed when a prince is called in with his forces to aid and defend, as w...

THAT WHICH CONCERNS A PRINCE ON THE SUBJECT OF THE ART OF WAR A prince ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and di...

CONCERNING THINGS FOR WHICH MEN, AND ESPECIALLY PRINCES, ARE PRAISED OR BLAMED It remains now to see what ought to be the rules of conduct for a prince towards subject and friends...

CONCERNING LIBERALITY AND MEANNESS Commencing then with the first of the above-named characteristics, I say that it would be well to be reputed liberal. Nevertheless, liberality e...

CONCERNING CRUELTY AND CLEMENCY, AND WHETHER IT IS BETTER TO BE LOVED THAN FEARED Coming now to the other qualities mentioned above, I say that every prince ought to desire to be ...

CONCERNING THE WAY IN WHICH PRINCES SHOULD KEEP FAITH [1] “The present chapter has given greater offence than any other portion of Machiavelli’s writings.” Burd, “Il Principe,” ...

THAT ONE SHOULD AVOID BEING DESPISED AND HATED Now, concerning the characteristics of which mention is made above, I have spoken of the more important ones, the others I wish to d...

ARE FORTRESSES, AND MANY OTHER THINGS TO WHICH PRINCES OFTEN RESORT, ADVANTAGEOUS OR HURTFUL? 1. Some princes, so as to hold securely the state, have disarmed their subjects; othe...

HOW A PRINCE SHOULD CONDUCT HIMSELF SO AS TO GAIN RENOWN Nothing makes a prince so much esteemed as great enterprises and setting a fine example. We have in our time Ferdinand of ...

CONCERNING THE SECRETARIES OF PRINCES The choice of servants is of no little importance to a prince, and they are good or not according to the discrimination of the prince. And th...

HOW FLATTERERS SHOULD BE AVOIDED I do not wish to leave out an important branch of this subject, for it is a danger from which princes are with difficulty preserved, unless they a...

WHY THE PRINCES OF ITALY HAVE LOST THEIR STATES The previous suggestions, carefully observed, will enable a new prince to appear well established, and render him at once more secu...

WHAT FORTUNE CAN EFFECT IN HUMAN AFFAIRS AND HOW TO WITHSTAND HER It is not unknown to me how many men have had, and still have, the opinion that the affairs of the world are in s...

AN EXHORTATION TO LIBERATE ITALY FROM THE BARBARIANS Having carefully considered the subject of the above discourses, and wondering within myself whether the present times were pr...