IN WHAT WAY PRINCES MUST KEEP FAITH
How laudable it is for a prince to keep good faith and live with
integrity, and not with astuteness, every one knows. Still the
experience of our times shows those princes to have done great things
who have had little regard for good faith, and have been able by
astuteness to confuse men's brains, and who have ultimately overcome
those who have made loyalty their foundation. You must know, then,
that there are two methods of fighting, the one by law, the other by
force: the first method is that of men, the second of beasts; but as
the first method is often insufficient, one must have recourse to the
second. It is therefore necessary to know well how to use both the
beast and the man. This was covertly taught to princes by ancient
writers, who relate how Achilles and many others of those princes were
given to Chiron the centaur to be brought up, who kept them under his
discipline; this system of having for teacher one who was half beast
and half man is meant to indicate that a prince must know how to use
both natures, and that the one without the other is not durable. A
prince being thus obliged to know well how to act as a beast must
imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself
from snares, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must
therefore be a fox to recognise snares, and a lion to frighten wolves.
Those that wish to be only lions do not understand this. Therefore,
a prudent ruler ought not to keep faith when by so doing it would be
against his interest, and when the reasons which made him bind himself
no longer exist. If men were all good, this precept would not be a
good one; but as they are bad, and would not observe their faith with
you, so you are not bound to keep faith with them. Nor are legitimate
grounds ever wanting to a prince to give colour to the non-fulfilment
of his promise. Of this one could furnish an infinite number of modern
examples, and show how many times peace has been broken, and how many
promises rendered worthless, by the faithlessness of princes, and those
that have been best able to imitate the fox have succeeded best. But
it is necessary to be able to disguise this character well, and to be
a great feigner and dissembler; and men are so simple and so ready to
obey present necessities, that one who deceives will always find those
who allow themselves to be deceived. I will only mention one modern
instance. Alexander VI. did nothing else but deceive men, he thought
of nothing else, and found the way to do it; no man was ever more able
to give assurances, or affirmed things with stronger oaths, and no man
observed them less; however, he always succeeded in his deceptions, as
he knew well this side of the world. It is not, therefore, necessary
for a prince to have all the above-named qualities, but it is very
necessary to seem to have them. I would even be bold to say that to
possess them and to always observe them is dangerous, but to appear
to possess them is useful. Thus it is well to seem pious, faithful,
humane, religious, sincere, and also to be so; but you must have the
mind so watchful that when it is needful to be otherwise you may be
able to change to the opposite qualities. And it must be understood
that a prince, and especially a new prince, cannot observe all those
things which are considered good in men, being often obliged, in order
to maintain the state, to act against faith, against charity, against
humanity, and against religion. And, therefore, he must have a mind
disposed to adapt itself according to the wind, and as the variations
of fortune dictate, and, as I said before, not deviate from what is
good, if possible, but be able to do evil if necessitated. A prince
must take great care that nothing goes out of his mouth which is not
full of the above-named five qualities, and, to see and hear him, he
should seem to be all faith, all integrity, all humanity, and all
religion. And nothing is more necessary than to seem to have this last
quality, for men in general judge more by the eyes than by the hands,
for every one can see, but very few have to feel. Everybody sees what
you appear to be, few feel what you are, and those few will not dare
to oppose themselves to the many, who have the majesty of the state to
defend them; and in the actions of men, and especially of princes, from
which there is no appeal, the end is everything.
Let a prince therefore aim at living and maintaining state the state,
the means will always be judged honourable and praised by every one,
for the vulgar is always taken by appearances and the result of things;
and the world consists only of the vulgar, and the few find a place
when the many have nothing to rest upon. A certain prince of the
present time, whom it is well not to name, never does anything but
preach peace and good faith, but he is really a great enemy to both,
and either of them, had he observed them, would have lost him both
state and reputation on many occasions.