Machiavelli The Prince Quote Analysis

Niccolo Machiavelli, an Italian Renaissance era philosopher, historian, and politician is cited by many for his political preservation advice. In his book “the prince”, he discusses the role of deception and instilling fear in order to be in control as a leader. While The Prince doesn’t depict leaders to be completely cruel, it does clarify how effective assertive and selfish behavior can be very effective when leading. While we should consider that Machiavelli was written in the 16th century, these rules and practices are still seen today. Machiavelli’s thinking that tasks are made to create a strong state but not necessarily a “good” one leads to the Machiavelli’s quote stating “it is far safer to be feared” leaders would love to be both

“There are, of course, rare leaders such as Lincoln, Gandhi, even F.D.R., Churchill, and Nehru. They do not hesitate to harness man's hungers and fears to weld a following and make it zealous unto death in service of a holy cause; but unlike a Hitler, a Stalin, or even a Luther and a Calvin, they are not tempted to use the slime of frustrated souls as mortar in the building of a new world.... They know that no one can be honorable unless he honors mankind". Pg147 the leaders of mass movements are great examples of being in control and manipulating the emotions of others that arise from a simple. The basic step in order to have a successful movement is the ability to make people to surrender their own beliefs and immerse the persons into the group’s principles. By combining with a group, the person is able to believe that his or her hopes and pride come from the nature and successes of the group rather from the abilities of the actual individual. This is made possible by the powerful force mass movements can have due to the new life and new meaning feeling it makes followers

In his writings he proposed a conception of political philosophy, which was gathered from the principle of self-ownership and the right to keep property. This can sound familiar because founding fathers took a lot of what john had said and established it into our own declaration independence. He also argued that the divine right of kings is supported neither by stricture nor by the use of reason which until this point was the predominant philosophy that kings were to rule because they were born to rule because they came from a bloodline that was gifted with rule as set forth in the bible. To Locke, men are in natural state of perfect freedom to their actions and place possession and persons as they think fit without asking or depending upon the will of any other man. All men, according to John Locke should be restrained from invading others rights and from doing harm to one another and the law of nature be in vain with there was no body that in the state of nature had a power to execute that law and thereby help the innocent and restrain offenders. For in that state of natural equality, there’s no superiority and thus in the state of nature one man must control but without absolute power. “Those who are united into one body, and have a common established law and judicature to appeal to, with authority to decide controversies between them, and punish offenders, are in civil