The Prince

you wish to please me, and to bring success and honour to yourself, do right and study, because others will help you if you help yourself."

Men will not look at things as they really are, but as they wish them to be—and are ruined

Men will not look at things as they really are, but as they wish them to be—and are ruined

For he who innovates will have for his enemies all those who are well off under the existing order of things, and only lukewarm supporters in those who might be better off under the new. This lukewarm temper arises partly from the fear of adversaries who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who will never admit the merit of anything new, until they have seen it proved by the event.

that he who is the cause of an­other be­com­ing power­ful is ruined; be­cause that pre­dom­in­ancy has been brought about either by as­tute­ness or else by force, and both are dis­trus­ted by him who has been raised to power

The wish to ac­quire is in truth very nat­ural and com­mon, and men al­ways do so when they can, and for this they will be praised not blamed; but when they can­not do so, yet wish to do so by any means, then there is folly and blame

Upon this, one has to re­mark that men ought either to be well treated or crushed, be­cause they can avenge them­selves of lighter in­jur­ies, of more ser­i­ous ones they can­not; there­fore the in­jury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of re­venge.

In this way you have en­emies in all those whom you have in­jured in seiz­ing that prin­cip­al­ity, and you are not able to keep those friends who put you there be­cause of your not be­ing able to sat­isfy them in the way they ex­pec­ted, and you can­not take strong meas­ures against them, feel­ing bound to them.

It is very true that, after ac­quir­ing re­bel­li­ous provinces a second time, they are not so lightly lost af­ter­wards, be­cause the prince, with little re­luct­ance, takes the op­por­tun­ity of the re­bel­lion to pun­ish the de­lin­quents, to clear out the sus­pects, and to strengthen him­self in the weak­est places.

In this way you have en­emies in all those whom you have in­jured in seiz­ing that prin­cip­al­ity, and you are not able to keep those friends who