Machiavelli asks how princes should keep faith. Everyone praises a ruler who lives with integrity, yet experience shows that princes who did great things treated good faith lightly and overcame those who trusted their word.
There are two ways of striving for mastery: by law, which belongs to men, and by force, which belongs to beasts. Because law is often insufficient, a prince must know how to use both natures. Ancient writers taught this through Chiron the centaur, who nursed Achilles and other princes in a discipline half beast and half man. When a prince must choose the beast, he should be fox and lion: the fox to detect snares, the lion to terrify wolves. A wise lord need not keep faith when keeping it would destroy him or when the reasons for the pledge are gone. Since men are bad and break faith, you are not bound to keep it with them, and excuses for non observance are never lacking.
The skill must be disguised. A prince must be a great pretender and dissembler, because men are simple and eager to be deceived. Alexander VI did nothing but deceive, swore powerfully, observed almost nothing, and still succeeded because he understood human nature. Machiavelli adds the proverb: Alexander never did what he said, Cesare never said what he did.
It is unnecessary to possess all the good qualities listed earlier, but necessary to appear to possess them. To have them always is injurious; to appear to have them is useful. A new prince is often forced to act against fidelity, friendship, humanity, and religion, yet should avoid evil when he can and know how to turn when compelled. He should speak always as merciful, faithful, humane, upright, and religious, especially religious, because men judge by the eye more than the hand. Everyone sees what you seem to be; few know what you are; and success makes the means look honest to the vulgar. One prince of Machiavelli's day, whom it is unsafe to name, preached peace and good faith while practicing the opposite, and would have lost reputation and kingdom had he kept either.
Coming Up in Chapter 19
In the next chapter, Machiavelli turns to another crucial aspect of power and leadership Machiavelli gathers the remaining qualities under one rule: avoid what makes a prince hated or despised. Hatred comes above all from rapacity and from violating subjects' property and women; when those are untouched most men live content and only a few ambitious men need curbing..
