








CHAPTER XVII - CONCERNING CRUELTY AND CLEMENCY, AND WHETHER IT IS BETTER TO BE LOVED THAN FEARED

COMING now to the other qualities mentioned above, I say that
every prince ought to desire to be considered clement and not cruel.
Nevertheless he ought to take care not to misuse this clemency. Cesare
Borgia was considered cruel; notwithstanding, his cruelty reconciled
the Romagna, unified it, and restored it to peace and loyalty. And
if this be rightly considered, he will be seen to have been much
more merciful than the Florentine people, who, to avoid a reputation
for cruelty, permitted Pistoia to be destroyed. Therefore a prince, so
long as he keeps his subjects united and loyal, ought not to mind
the reproach of cruelty; because with a few examples he will be more
merciful than those who, through too much mercy, allow disorders to
arise, from which follow murders or robberies; for these are wont to
injure the whole people, whilst those executions which originate
with a prince offend the individual only.

And of all princes, it is impossible for the new prince to avoid the
imputation of cruelty, owing to new states being full of dangers.
Hence Virgil, through the mouth of Dido, excuses the inhumanity of her
reign owing to its being new, saying:

Res dura, et regni novitas me talia cogunt

Moliri, et late fines custode tueri.*

* ...against my will, my fate,

A throne unsettled, and an infant state,

Bid me defend my realms with all my pow'rs,

And guard with these severities my shores.

Nevertheless he ought to be slow to believe and to act, nor should
he himself show fear, but proceed in a temperate manner with
prudence and humanity, so that too much confidence may not make him
incautious and too much distrust render him intolerable.

Upon this a question arises: whether it be better to be loved than
feared or feared than loved? It may be answered that one should wish
to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one
person, is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two,
either must be dispensed with. Because this is to be asserted in
general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly,
covetous, and as long as you succeed they are yours entirely; they
will offer you their blood, property, life and children, as is said
above, when the need is far distant; but when it approaches they
turn against you. And that prince who, relying entirely on their
promises, has neglected other precautions, is ruined; because
friendships that are obtained by payments, and not by greatness or
nobility of mind, may indeed be earned, but they are not secured,
and in time of need cannot be relied upon; and men have less scruple
in offending one who is beloved than one who is feared, for love is
preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of
men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear
preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.

Nevertheless a prince ought to inspire fear in such a way that, if
he does not win love, he avoids hatred; because he can endure very
well being feared whilst he is not hated, which will always be as long
as he abstains from the property of his citizens and subjects and from
their women. But when it is necessary for him to proceed against the
life of someone, he must do it on proper justification and for
manifest cause, but above all things he must keep his hands off the
property of others, because men more quickly forget the death of their
father than the loss of their patrimony. Besides, pretexts for
taking away the property are never wanting; for he who has once
begun to live by robbery will always find pretexts for seizing what
belongs to others; but reasons for taking life, on the contrary, are
more difficult to find and sooner lapse. But when a prince is with his
army, and has under control a multitude of soldiers, then it is
quite necessary for him to disregard the reputation of cruelty, for
without it he would never hold his army united or disposed to its
duties.

Among the wonderful deeds of Hannibal this one is enumerated: that
having led an enormous army, composed of many various races of men, to
fight in foreign lands, no dissensions arose either among them or
against the prince, whether in his bad or in his good fortune. This
arose from nothing else than his inhuman cruelty, which, with his
boundless valour, made him revered and terrible in the sight of his
soldiers, but without that cruelty, his other virtues were not
sufficient to produce this effect. And shortsighted writers admire his
deeds from one point of view and from another condemn the principal
cause of them. That it is true his other virtues would not have been
sufficient for him may be proved by the case of Scipio, that most
excellent man, not of his own times but within the memory of man,
against whom, nevertheless, his army rebelled in Spain; this arose
from nothing but his too great forbearance, which gave his soldiers
more licence than is consistent with military discipline. For this
he was upbraided in the Senate by Fabius Maximus, and called the
corrupter of the Roman soldiery. The Locrians were laid waste by a
legate of Scipio, yet they were not avenged by him, nor was the
insolence of the legate punished, owing entirely to his easy nature.
Insomuch that someone in the Senate, wishing to excuse him, said there
were many men who knew much better how not to err than to correct
the errors of others. This disposition, if he had been continued in
the command, would have destroyed in time the fame and glory of
Scipio; but, he being under the control of the Senate, this
injurious characteristic not only concealed itself, but contributed to
his glory.

Returning to the question of being feared or loved, I come to the
conclusion that, men loving according to their own will and fearing
according to that of the prince, a wise prince should establish
himself on that which is in his own control and not in that of others;
he must endeavour only to avoid hatred, as is noted.


