The Prince

by Niccolò Machiavelli

Men will not look at things as they really are, but as they wish them to be--and are ruined. In politics there are no perfectly safe courses; prudence consists in choosing the least dangerous ones. Then--to pass to a higher plane--Machiavelli reiterates that, although crimes may win an empire, they do not win glory. Necessary wars are just wars, and the arms of a nation are hallowed when it has no other resource but to fight.

USA civil war? Iraqi defeat of ISIS?

Upon this, one has to remark that men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.

This sounds like a line out of "The Godfather"

But in maintaining armed men there in place of colonies one spends much more, having to consume on the garrison all the income from the state, so that the acquisition turns into a loss, and many more are exasperated, because the whole state is injured; through the shifting of the garrison up and down all become acquainted with hardship, and all become hostile, and they are enemies who, whilst beaten on their own ground, are yet able to do hurt. For every reason, therefore, such guards are as useless as a colony is useful.

occupation of Iraq & Afghanistan

what all prudent princes ought to do, who have to regard not only present troubles, but also future ones, for which they must prepare with every energy, because, when foreseen, it is easy to remedy them; but if you wait until they approach, the medicine is no longer in time because the malady has become incurable;

How long, I wonder, until the Trump disease becomes incurable

Therefore, the Romans, foreseeing troubles, dealt with them at once, and, even to avoid a war, would not let them come to a head, for they knew that war is not to be avoided, but is only to be put off to the advantage of others;

ISIS?

The wish to acquire is in truth very natural and common, and men always do so when they can, and for this they will be praised not blamed; but when they cannot do so, yet wish to do so by any means, then there is folly and blame.

a blunder ought never to be perpetrated to avoid war, because it is not to be avoided, but is only deferred to your disadvantage.

From this a general rule is drawn which never or rarely fails: that he who is the cause of another becoming powerful is ruined; because that predominancy has been brought about either by astuteness or else by force, and both are distrusted by him who has been raised to power.

he who would keep a city accustomed to freedom will hold it more easily by the means of its own citizens than in any other way.

potential reference to indiviual states or perhaps the institutions of state

And he who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it, may expect to be destroyed by it, for in rebellion it has always the watchword of liberty and its ancient privileges as a rallying point,

departments?

A wise man ought always to follow the paths beaten by great men, and to imitate those who have been supreme, so that if his ability does not equal theirs, at least it will savour of it.

reside there in person.

Interesting considering Trump's haste to go to Mar-a-Lago on Friday nights. does not really want to reside in the White House

And in examining their actions and lives one cannot see that they owed anything to fortune beyond opportunity, which brought them the material to mould into the form which seemed best to them.

trump had good fortune

Those who by valorous ways become princes, like these men, acquire a principality with difficulty, but they keep it with ease.

Trump is the opposite of this

And it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, then to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.

all armed prophets have conquered, and the unarmed ones have been destroyed.

the nature of the people is variable, and whilst it is easy to persuade them, it is difficult to fix them in that persuasion. And thus it is necessary to take such measures that, when they believe no longer, it may be possible to make them believe by force.

Neither have they the knowledge requisite for the position; because, unless they are men of great worth and ability, it is not reasonable to expect that they should know how to command, having always lived in a private condition; besides, they cannot hold it because they have not forces which they can keep friendly and faithful.

applicable to djt

Therefore, he who considers it necessary to secure himself in his new principality, to win friends, to overcome either by force or fraud, to make himself beloved and feared by the people, to be followed and revered by the soldiers, to exterminate those who have power or reason to hurt him, to change the old order of things for new, to be severe and gracious, magnanimous and liberal, to destroy a disloyal soldiery and to create new, to maintain friendship with kings and princes in such a way that they must help him with zeal and offend with caution, cannot find a more lively example than the actions of this man.

He who believes that new benefits will cause great personages to forget old injuries is deceived.

For injuries ought to be done all at one time, so that, being tasted less, they offend less; benefits ought to be given little by little, so that the flavour of them may last longer.

does this sound familiar

For it is the nature of men to be bound by the benefits they confer as much as by those they receive.

there cannot be good laws where the state is not well armed,

arms conquests come but slowly, long delayed and inconsiderable, but the losses sudden and portentous.

nothing can be so uncertain or unstable as fame or power not founded on its own strength.

how one lives is so far distant from how one ought to live, that he who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation;

it is necessary for a prince wishing to hold his own to know how to do wrong, and to make use of it or not according to necessity.

so that too much confidence may not make him incautious and too much distrust render him intolerable.

men more quickly forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony.

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.

men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand,

Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are,

and those few dare not oppose themselves to the opi...

And here it must be noted that such-like deaths, which are deliberately inflicted with a resolved and desperate courage, cannot be avoided by princes, because any one who does not fear to die can inflict them;

Fortresses, therefore, are useful or not according to circumstances; if they do you good in one way they injure you in another.

maginot line?

Victories after all are never so complete that the victor must not show some regard, especially to justice.

Never let any Government imagine that it can choose perfectly safe courses; rather let it expect to have to take very doubtful ones, because it is found in ordinary affairs that one never seeks to avoid one trouble without running into another; but prudence consists in knowing how to distinguish the character of troubles, and for choice to take the lesser evil.

presuming, of course, that the goverment is competent in the first place

And the first opinion which one forms of a prince, and of his understanding, is by observing the men he has around him; and when they are capable and faithful he may always be considered wise, because he has known how to recognize the capable and to keep them faithful. But when they are otherwise one cannot form a good opinion of him, for the prime error which he made was in choosing them.

obvious i guess

a prince who is not wise himself will never take good advice,

men will always prove untrue to you unless they are kept honest by constraint.

(it is a common defect in man not to make any provision in the calm against the tempest),