








CHAPTER XVIII - CONCERNING THE WAY IN WHICH PRINCES SHOULD KEEP FAITH

EVERY one admits how praiseworthy it is in a prince to keep faith,
and to live with integrity and not with craft. Nevertheless our
experience has been that those princes who have done great things have
held good faith of little account, and have known how to circumvent
the intellect of men by craft, and in the end have overcome those
who have relied on their word. You must know there are two ways of
contesting, the one by the law, the other by force; the first method
is proper to men, the second to beasts; but because the first is
frequently not sufficient, it is necessary to have recourse to the
second. Therefore it is necessary for a prince to understand how to
avail himself of the beast and the man. This has been figuratively
taught to princes by ancient writers, who describe how Achilles and
many other princes of old were given to the Centaur Chiron to nurse,
who brought them up in his discipline; which means solely that, as
they had for a teacher one who was half beast and half man, so it is
necessary for a prince to know how to make use of both natures, and
that one without the other is not durable. A prince, therefore,
being compelled knowingly to adopt the beast, ought to choose the
fox and the lion; because the lion cannot defend himself against
snares and the fox cannot defend himself against wolves. Therefore, it
is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares and a lion to
terrify the wolves. Those who rely simply on the lion do not
understand what they are about. Therefore a wise lord cannot, nor
ought he to, keep faith when such observance may be turned against
him, and when the reasons that caused him to pledge it exist no
longer. If men were entirely good this precept would not hold, but
because they are bad, and will not keep faith with you, you too are
not bound to observe it with them. Nor will there ever be wanting to a
prince legitimate reasons to excuse this nonobservance. Of this
endless modern examples could be given, showing how many treaties
and engagements have been made void and of no effect through the
faithlessness of princes; and he who has known best how to employ
the fox has succeeded best.

But it is necessary to know well how to disguise this
characteristic, and to be a great pretender and dissembler; and men
are so simple, and so subject to present necessities, that he who
seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be
deceived. One recent example I cannot pass over in silence.
Alexander VI did nothing else but deceive men, nor ever thought of
doing otherwise, and he always found victims; for there never was a
man who had greater power in asserting, or who with greater oaths
would affirm a thing, yet would observe it less; nevertheless his
deceits always succeeded according to his wishes, because he well
understood this side of mankind.

Therefore it is unnecessary for a prince to have all the good
qualities I have enumerated, but it is very necessary to appear to
have them. And I shall dare to say this also, that to have them and
always to observe them is injurious, and that to appear to have them
is useful; to appear merciful, faithful, humane, religious, upright,
and to be so, but with a mind so framed that should you require not to
be so, you may be able and know how to change to the opposite.

And you have to understand this, that a prince, especially a new
one, cannot observe all those things for which men are esteemed, being
often forced, in order to maintain the state, to act contrary to
faith, friendship, humanity, and religion. Therefore it is necessary
for him to have a mind ready to turn itself accordingly as the winds
and variations of fortune force it, yet, as I have said above, not
to diverge from the good if he can avoid doing so, but, if
compelled, then to know how to set about it.

For this reason a prince ought to take care that he never lets
anything slip from his lips that is not replete with the above-named
five qualities, that he may appear to him who sees and hears him
altogether merciful, faithful, humane, upright, and religious. There
is nothing more necessary to appear to have than this last quality,
inasmuch as men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand,
because it belongs to everybody to see you, to few to come in touch
with you. Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what
you are, and those few dare not oppose themselves to 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, which it is not prudent
to challenge, one judges by the result.

For that reason, let a prince have the credit of conquering and
holding his state, the means will always be considered honest, and
he will be praised by everybody because the vulgar are always taken by
what a thing seems to be and by what comes of it; and in the world
there are only the vulgar, for the few find a place there only when
the many have no ground to rest on.

One prince* of the present time, whom it is not well to name,
never preaches anything else but peace and good faith, and to both
he is most hostile, and either, if he had kept it, would have deprived
him of reputation and kingdom many a time.

* Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.


