XVIII. How Princes Should Keep Faith

How praiseworthy it is for a prince to keep faith and to live with integrity and not with cunning, everyone understands. Nevertheless one sees by experience in our times that the princes who have done great things are those who have taken little account of faith and have known how to get around men’s minds with cunning; and in the end they have overcome those who built on loyalty.

You must know, then, that there are two ways of fighting: one with laws, the other with force. The first is proper to man, the second to beasts; but because the first is often not enough, one must resort to the second. Therefore a prince needs to know how to make good use of the beast and of the man. This lesson was taught to princes covertly by the ancient writers, who wrote that Achilles and many other princes of antiquity were given to Chiron the centaur to be brought up, so that he would keep them under his discipline. To have as one’s teacher a creature half beast and half man means nothing else but that a prince must know how to use both natures, and that the one without the other does not last.

Since a prince, then, must know how to make good use of the beast, he should choose from among the beasts the fox and the lion; because the lion cannot defend itself from snares, and the fox cannot defend itself from wolves. So you need to be a fox to recognize the snares and a lion to frighten off the wolves. Those who rely simply on the lion do not understand this. A prudent lord, therefore, cannot and should not keep faith when keeping it would work against him and when the reasons that made him promise have disappeared. If men were all good, this precept would not be good; but because they are wicked and would not keep faith with you, you too need not keep it with them. Nor has a prince ever lacked legitimate reasons to color his failure to keep it. Of this one could give countless modern examples and show how many peace treaties, how many promises have been made null and void by the faithlessness of princes; and the one who has known best how to use the fox has come out best. But one must know how to color this nature well, and be a great feigner and dissembler; and men are so simple, and so ready to obey present necessities, that whoever deceives will always find someone who will let himself be deceived.

Of recent examples there is one I do not want to pass over in silence. Alexander VI never did anything, and never thought of anything, but deceiving men, and he always found material to work on. There was never a man more effective in making assurances, or who affirmed a thing with greater oaths and kept it less; nevertheless his deceptions always succeeded as he wished, because he knew this side of the world well.

It is not necessary, then, for a prince to have all the qualities listed above, but it is very necessary to seem to have them. I will even dare to say this: that having them and always observing them is harmful, and seeming to have them is useful; as it is useful to seem merciful, faithful, humane, upright, and religious, and to be so; but with your mind so disposed that, when you need not to be, you are able and know how to change to the contrary. And this must be understood: that a prince, and especially a new prince, cannot observe all the things for which men are held good, since in order to keep his state he is often obliged to act against faith, against charity, against humanity, against religion. And so he must have a mind ready to turn as the winds and the variations of fortune command him, and, as I said above, not depart from good when he can, but know how to enter into evil when he must.

A prince, then, must take great care that nothing ever comes out of his mouth that is not full of the five qualities listed above, and that to see and hear him he should seem all mercy, all faith, all integrity, all religion. And there is nothing more necessary to seem to have than this last quality. Men in general judge more by their eyes than by their hands, because it belongs to everyone to see, to few to touch. Everyone sees what you seem to be; few touch what you are; and those few do not dare to oppose 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, where there is no court to appeal to, one looks to the result. Let a prince, then, win and keep his state: the means will always be judged honorable and will be praised by everyone. For the common people are always taken in by appearances and by the outcome of a thing, and in the world there is nothing but the common people; and the few have no room when the many have something to lean on. A certain prince of the present day, whom it is better not to name,¹ never preaches anything but peace and faith, and is the greatest enemy of both; and either one, had he observed it, would have taken from him many times over either his reputation or his state.

Notes

1. 1. Ferdinand of Aragon.