THE PRINCE. (Annotated)

by Niccolò Machiavelli

Dante says: Knowledge doth come of learning well retained, Unfruitful else,

All states, all powers, that have held and hold rule over men have been and are either republics or principalities.

I say at once there are fewer difficulties in holding hereditary states, and those long accustomed to the family of their prince,

For the hereditary prince has less cause and less necessity to offend; hence it happens that he will be more loved; and unless extraordinary vices cause him to be hated, it is reasonable to expect that his subjects will be naturally well disposed towards him;