XXII. The Ministers Princes Keep Beside Them

The choice of ministers is of no small importance to a prince, and they are good or not according to the prince’s prudence. The first guess one makes about the intelligence of a lord is from seeing the men he has around him. When they are capable and faithful, one can always consider him wise, because he has known how to recognize their capability and keep them faithful. But when they are otherwise, one can always form an unfavorable judgment of him, because the first mistake he makes, he makes in this choice.

There was no one who knew Antonio da Venafro as the minister of Pandolfo Petrucci, prince of Siena, who did not judge Pandolfo to be a very able man for having him as his minister. For there are three kinds of brains: one understands things by itself; the second discerns what others understand; the third understands neither by itself nor through others. The first is most excellent, the second excellent, the third useless. It followed of necessity, therefore, that if Pandolfo was not of the first rank, he was of the second. For whenever someone has the judgment to recognize the good or the bad that another does and says, even if he has no invention of his own, he recognizes the bad and the good works of his minister, praises the good and corrects the bad; and the minister cannot hope to deceive him, and so keeps himself good.

But as for how a prince can know his minister, there is this method, which never fails. When you see the minister thinking more of himself than of you, and seeking his own advantage in all his actions, such a man will never be a good minister, and you will never be able to trust him. For the one who has another’s state in his hands must never think of himself but always of the prince, and must never bring to his attention anything that does not concern the prince. On the other side, the prince, to keep him good, must think of the minister, honoring him, making him rich, putting him under obligation, sharing honors and responsibilities with him, so that he sees that he cannot stand without the prince, and so that his many honors do not make him want more honors, his great riches do not make him want more riches, and his many responsibilities make him fear changes. When ministers, then, and princes in their dealings with ministers, are of this kind, they can trust each other; when they are otherwise, the end will always be harmful for one or the other.