The Prince

1513

Niccolo Machiavelli

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Such Princes are wholly dependent on the favour and fortunes of those who have made them great, than which supports none could be less stable or secure; and they lack both the knowledge and the power that would enable them to maintain their position. They lack the knowledge, because unless they have great parts and force of character, it is not to be expected that having always lived in a private station they should have learned how to command. They lack the power, since they cannot look for support from attached and faithful troops. 

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For, as I have already said, he who does not lay his foundations at first, may, if he be of great parts, succeed in laying them afterwards, though with inconvenience to the builder and risk to the building. 

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take from him what he had gained, and that the King might serve him the same turn. 

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The barbarity of which spectacle at once astounded and satisfied the populace. 

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for fear is as dangerous an enemy as resentment.