The Prince. Niccolò Machiavelli

tion>

      Table of Contents

       The Prince Niccolò Machiavelli

       Dedication: To the Magnificent Lorenzo Di Piero De’ Medici

       Chapter 1 Of the Various Kinds of Princedom, and of the Ways in Which They Are Acquired

       Chapter 2 Of Hereditary Princedoms

       Chapter 3 Of Mixed Princedoms

       Chapter 4 Why the Kingdom of Darius, Conquered by Alexander, Did Not, on Alexander’s Death, Rebel Against His Successors

       Chapter 5 How Cities or Provinces Which Before Their Acquisition Have Lived Under Their Own Laws Are To Be Governed

       Chapter 6 Of New Princedoms Which a Prince Acquires With His Own Arms and by Merit

       Chapter 7 Of New Princedoms Acquired By the Aid of Others and By Good Fortune

       Chapter 8 Of Those Who By Their Crimes Come to Be Princes

       Chapter 9 Of the Civil Princedom

       Chapter 10 How the Strength of All Princedoms Should Be Measured

       Chapter 11 Of Ecclesiastical Princedoms

       Chapter 12 How Many Different Kinds of Soldiers There Are, and of Mercenaries

       Chapter 13 Of Auxiliary, Mixed, and National Arms

       Chapter 14 Of the Duty of a Prince In Respect of Military Affairs

       Chapter 15 Of the Qualities In Respect of Which Men, and Most of all Princes, Are Praised or Blamed

       Chapter 16 Of Liberality and Miserliness

       Chapter 17 Of Cruelty and Clemency, and Whether It Is Better To Be Loved or Feared

       Chapter 18 How Princes Should Keep Faith

       Chapter 19 That a Prince Should Seek to Escape Contempt and Hatred

       Chapter 20 Whether Fortresses, and Certain Other Expedients to Which Princes Often Have Recourse, are Profitable or Hurtful

       Chapter 21 How a Prince Should Bear Himself So As to Acquire Reputation

       Chapter 22 Of the Secretaries of Princes

       Chapter 23 That Flatterers Should Be Shunned

       Chapter 24 Why the Princes of Italy Have Lost Their States

       Chapter 25 What Fortune Can Effect in Human Affairs, and How She May Be Withstood

       Chapter 26 An Exhortation to Liberate Italy from the Barbarians

       AudioBook

      The Prince

      Niccolò Machiavelli

      (Translator: Ninian Hill Thomson)

       Published: 1513 Categorie(s): Non-Fiction, Human Science, Philosophy, Social science, Political science, History, History by country, United States, Other, Military

      Dedication: To the Magnificent Lorenzo Di Piero De’ Medici

      It is customary for such as seek a Prince’s favour, to present themselves before him with those things of theirs which they themselves most value, or in which they perceive him chiefly to delight. Accordingly, we often see horses, armour, cloth of gold, precious stones, and the like costly gifts, offered to Princes as worthy of their greatness. Desiring in like manner to approach your Magnificence with some token of my devotion, I have found among my possessions none that I so much prize and esteem as a knowledge of the actions of great men, acquired in the course of a long experience of modern affairs and a continual study of antiquity. Which knowledge most carefully and patiently pondered over and sifted by me, and now reduced into this little book, I send to your Magnificence. And though I deem the work unworthy of your greatness, yet am I bold enough to hope that your courtesy will dispose you to accept it, considering that I can offer you no better gift than the means of mastering in a very brief time, all that in the course of so many years, and at the cost of so many hardships and dangers, I have learned, and know.

      This work I have not adorned or amplified with rounded periods, swelling and high-flown language, or any other of those extrinsic attractions and allurements wherewith many authors are wont to set off and grace their writings; since it is my desire that it should either pass wholly unhonoured, or that the truth of its matter and the importance of its subject should alone recommend it.

      Nor would I have it thought presumption that a person of very mean and humble station should venture to discourse and lay down rules concerning the government of Princes. For as those who make maps of countries place themselves low down in the plains to study the character of mountains and elevated lands, and place themselves high up on the mountains to get a better view of the plains, so in like manner to understand the People a man should be a Prince, and to have a clear notion of Princes he should belong to the People.

      Let your Magnificence, then, accept this little gift in the spirit in which I offer it; wherein, if you diligently read and study it, you will recognize my extreme desire that you should attain to that eminence which Fortune and your own merits promise you. Should you from the height of your greatness some time turn your eyes to these humble regions, you will become aware how undeservedly I have to endure the keen and unremitting malignity of Fortune.

      Niccolo Machiavelli

      Chapter 1 Of the Various Kinds of Princedom, and of the Ways in Which They Are Acquired

      All the States and Governments by which men are or ever have been