The PrinceNiccolò Machiavelli

The Prince broke with the entire tradition of mirrors for princes. Where earlier writers told rulers to be just, pious, and merciful, Machiavelli tells them to learn how not to be good. The scandal of the book is not cynicism but realism: Machiavelli insists on looking at how men live rather than how they ought to live, and he draws his lessons from Roman history and contemporary Italian politics with equal frankness.

A prince who wishes to maintain his state must be prepared to act against faith, charity, humanity, and religion when necessity requires it. He should prefer to be feared rather than loved, because fear is held together by a dread of punishment that never fails, while love is held by a chain of obligation that men break whenever it serves their interest. He must know how to use both the lion and the fox: force and fraud. Fortuna governs half of human affairs, but the other half belongs to virtù, the prince's energy, decisiveness, and willingness to act.

The work is short (twenty-six chapters), and its compression gives it force. Whether Machiavelli intended it as sincere advice, as satire, or as a bid for Medici patronage has been debated since its posthumous publication in 1532. What is not debated is its effect: The Prince made politics a subject that could be discussed without reference to theology or moral philosophy, and that separation has never been undone.