Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince

The Prince was a scandalous political theory book written in 1513 by Niccolò Machiavelli, an Italian diplomat and political logician. The Prince disregarded political norms of having well rounded and moral leaders, replacing those figures was the idea of a ruthless prince, not limited by morality or religion. Niccolò Machiavelli was born in 1469 in Florence, in 1498 he was appointed secretary and second chancellor to the Florentine Republic. Machiavelli’s most well-known work was The Prince and one of the more famous ideas of this piece is when Machiavelli advises in chapter 18 for princes to be both like a fox and a lion. Machiavelli was and is widely known as a daring and honest political theorists whose ideas are relevant to this day. Niccolò

Machiavelli starts off the chapter with the statement “Everyone realizes how praiseworthy it is for a prince to honour his word and to be straightforward rather than crafty in his dealings; none the less a contemporary experience shows that princes who have achieved great things have been those who have given their word lightly, who have known how to trick men men with their cunning” (Machiavelli, 56). Machiavelli in this quote deliberately attacks the societal norm of having an honest and sincere leader. Machiavelli claims that many believe that princes should be honest and true to their word, but he declares that a smart prince would act in the opposite fashion by giving their word lightly and being cunningly deceptive. Furthermore, Machiavelli continues to say that even if you do not possess these qualities, to deceive your people and at least appear to contain these characteristics. Machiavelli states, “A prince, therefore, need not necessarily have all the good qualities I mentioned above, but he should certainly appear to have them… He should appear to be compassionate, faithful to his word, kind, guileless, and devout. And indeed he should be so. But his disposition should be such that, if he needs to be the opposite, he knows how.” (57). This quote corresponds with the metaphor of being both a fox and a lion because Machiavelli is talking about how a prince should have two sides, one he shows to the public and one he uses to deal with internal affairs. It also connects to the analogy through the simple idea of having two sides of oneself in being a prince. Having one ferocious side and one clever side, having one side a prince shows to the world that really is just a mask for how he is truly dealing with political affairs. Overall, this analogy fits into the argument Machiavelli projects