(*) Maximilian I, born in 1459, died
1519, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
He married, first, Mary, daughter of Charles
the Bold; after her death, Bianca Sforza; and thus
became involved in Italian politics.
A prince, therefore, ought always to take counsel,
but only when he wishes and not when others wish;
he ought rather to discourage every one from offering
advice unless he asks it; but, however, he ought to
be a constant inquirer, and afterwards a patient listener
concerning the things of which he inquired; also,
on learning that any one, on any consideration, has
not told him the truth, he should let his anger be
felt.
And if there are some who think that a prince who
conveys an impression of his wisdom is not so through
his own ability, but through the good advisers that
he has around him, beyond doubt they are deceived,
because this is an axiom which never fails: that
a prince who is not wise himself will never take good
advice, unless by chance he has yielded his affairs
entirely to one person who happens to be a very prudent
man. In this case indeed he may be well governed,
but it would not be for long, because such a governor
would in a short time take away his state from him.
But if a prince who is not inexperienced should take
counsel from more than one he will never get united
counsels, nor will he know how to unite them.
Each of the counsellors will think of his own interests,
and the prince will not know how to control them or
to see through them. And they are not to found
otherwise, because men will always prove untrue to
you unless they are kept honest by constraint.
Therefore it must be inferred that good counsels,
whencesoever they come, are born of the wisdom of
the prince, and not the wisdom of the prince from good
counsels.
The previous suggestions, carefully observed, will
enable a new prince to appear well established, and
render him at once more secure and fixed in the state
than if he had been long seated there. For the
actions of a new prince are more narrowly observed
than those of an hereditary one, and when they are
seen to be able they gain more men and bind far tighter
than ancient blood; because men are attracted more
by the present than by the past, and when they find
the present good they enjoy it and seek no further;
they will also make the utmost defence of a prince
if he fails them not in other things. Thus it
will be a double glory for him to have established
a new principality, and adorned and strengthened it
with good laws, good arms, good allies, and with a
good example; so will it be a double disgrace to him
who, born a prince, shall lose his state by want of
wisdom.
And if those seigniors are considered who have lost
their states in Italy in our times, such as the King
of Naples, the Duke of Milan, and others, there will
be found in them, firstly, one common defect in regard
to arms from the causes which have been discussed at
length; in the next place, some one of them will be
seen, either to have had the people hostile, or if
he has had the people friendly, he has not known how
to secure the nobles. In the absence of these
defects states that have power enough to keep an army
in the field cannot be lost.
