The Prince - Niccolò Machiavelli

Rating: ★★★★★
19/07/13


This is no Little Prince, that's for sure. You must kill the fox, burn the rose, murder the businessman, if any of them tries to take control over your princedom. There is no time to be nice! There is only time to seem to be nice. At the end of the day, it is better to be feared than loved, if you can't be both. But, keep in mind chapter 23.

The Prince was written in the 16th century, and some of its ideas are too contemporary. It is a major treatise that influenced political leaders, through history. Machiavelli is widely regarded as the father of modern politics, by taking away any trace of theology and morality from his works. (That is something no one has ever said before.) I should have read it long ago, but everything has its time, I guess.

So, there are a lot of concepts that should stay in the book. A few you can apply in ordinary circumstances. But, it delivers what you are waiting for, if you want to know how to have and keep power to yourself, no matter the head you are crushing, and all that with a straight-forward prose. It is short, easy to understand, even though the concept of achieving glory, power and survival, no matter how immoral you have to be..., it is not tough to get; THAT we get.

All that cruelty, wickedness, immorality; all those things apparently needed to achieve greatness, printed long ago in the form of a little book, just like that... From a twisted point of view, sometimes, it is almost a bit funny.
It was an excellent read.

There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you. (137)

Lovely.