The Prince

The Prince is a book written by Niccolò Machiavelli, who lived in the city of Florence in the country of Italy. The book was published in 1513. It is the most famous book by Niccolò Machiavelli. In it, he gives advice about politics and ruling. 

While he gives advice for kings who inherit their rule, he focuses on new rulers who have just became rulers.

Machiavelli says that a king who inherits his rule does not need to do much to stay in power, unless someone uses a lot of force to remove him. But a new ruler has a harder job. First, he must make his rule stable and then build a strong government.

Machiavelli also says that rulers should not always try to be good. He believes that the usual virtues (like kindness or honesty) can make a ruler prone to danger. Instead, a ruler must learn to act in the opposite way when needed to keep his state.

A ruler should care about his reputation, but also be ready to use cruelty when necessary. Machiavelli says it is better for a ruler to be feared than loved. People obey a feared ruler because they are afraid of punishment.

He also says that rulers might need to use violence or trickery, even killing powerful families, to stop threats to their royal authority.Machiavelli, The Prince, Chapter III

References

 Other websites 
 Il Principe (HTML e-book)
 The Prince Book  Read the book online or download for free. Suitable for e-readers

Category:Works of philosophy
Category:Political books
Category:16th-century books
Category:1510s works
Category:Italian literature