The Prince - 4 - Knowing How To Be Evil
Part 4 (Chapters 15 - 19)
Quote
Men are so simple-minded and so controlled by their immediate needs that he who deceives will always find someone who will let himself be deceived.
Notes
🔥 It's important to deal in reality, and not wishful thinking, when it comes to moral decision making. "A man who wishes to profess goodness at all times will come to ruin among so many who are not good." And so, a prince "must learn how not to be good."
🔥 Some things that appear to be virtue bring about ruin, while some things that appear to be vice will secure your power. Taking a moral decision purely based on principle may cost you your power. If you want to be a prince and stay a prince, you have to be willing to do what it takes to retain power, even if that means doing immoral things.
🔥 On generosity or miserliness, it's best not to gain a reputation for generosity because that will force you to be generous with everyone all the time and that will lead you to have money problems down the road. Better not to worry about that virtue (the virtue of generosity) so much since people will be happier with you if you run the state well and don't have to raise taxes.
🔥 "It is wiser to live with the reputation of a miser, which gives birth to infamy without hatred, than to be forced to incur the reputation of rapacity, because you want to be considered generous, which gives birth to an infamy with hatred."
🔥 A prince should want to be considered merciful and not cruel, but sometimes you have to be cruel to keep the state together. Too much mercy will lead to disorder, the solution to which is excessive cruelty. Or at least that's how people will perceive it.
🔥 Is it better to be feared or loved? It's safer to be feared, says Machiavelli, since that's a more reliable way to retain power and obligation from people. If people's loyalty is built on love, it will be easier to abandon you in a crisis. "But fear is sustained by a dread of punishment that will never abandon you."
🔥 It is possible to be feared and not hated. Don't steal too much from your citizens and they won't hate you, at least. Being hated by your people should be avoided at all costs because that will lead to your downfall.
🔥 When it comes to your army, you need to show cruelty. Hannibal kept the loyalty of his men because of his "inhumane cruelty".
🔥 It's great to live in integrity and to keep your word, but greater princes "have thought little about keeping faith and have known how cunningly to manipulate men's minds."
🔥 "You must know that there are two modes of fighting: one in accordance with the laws, the other with force. The first is proper to man, the second to beasts. But because the first, in many cases, is not sufficient, it becomes necessary to have recourse to the second: therefore, a prince must know how to make good use of the natures of both the beast and the man."
🔥 "A wise ruler should not keep his word when such an observance would be to his disadvantage." Men are a "wicked lot" who don't keep their promises. So if other people don't keep their promises, why should you keep yours?
🔥 A prince cannot always be moral because there are immoral things you must do to protect the state. But it is good to appear moral. "Ordinary people are always taken in by appearances."
🔥 It's okay to be immoral, but it's very important to avoid being hated. To avoid being hated, don't take people's property or their women or their honour.
🔥 You protect yourself from internal conspiracies if you are not hated. The risk to any conspirators is normally very high, but it's a lot lower if everyone hates you.
🔥 Machiavelli reviews examples of Roman emperors. Though their cases were a little different since the Roman army was its own contingent with different interests than the common people. And sometimes their interests had to supersede the people's interests.
Thoughts
Machiavelli sees no advantage to holding to any moral principles. It's actually a disadvantage in his mind, since there are cases where doing the moral thing may cause you to lose power. Again, that is the lens through which he is looking at everything in The Prince.
But it isn't the case that being evil is always best either. For Machiavelli, one of the most important things is to not be hated by your people. And the reason is purely practical. If you're hated, it will be much easier for you to get thrown out of power. For that reason, it's still important to be good most of the time: a prince "should not depart from the good if it is possible to do so, but he should know how to enter into evil when forced by necessity."