Machiavelli
I have shared with you briefly the wisdom of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. What about this fellow Machiavelli, Nicciolo Machiavelli to be exact? He was an Italian philosopher, politician, historian, diplomat and humanist. He was like the founding father of political science. They say that a diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip.
His Masterpiece was "The Prince" and the word "Machiavellian-ism was created according to his ethical and moral beliefs. We must understand that his era was a tumultuous one where wars were waged so as to acquire city states. Cities like Venice and Florence where he was from though not a full citizen, faced battles for control and influence from foreign powers like the Roman Empire, Spain and France. At the time, Florence was one of the centres of Greek scholarship.
He experienced and witnessed the methods of Cesare Borgia and his father Pope Alexander VI for wanting to control Italy on the pretext of defending Church interests. He was the man responsible for Florence's militia and for defending the city and he was a strong believer of invested citizen-militia. Under his command, they defeated Pisa. I am not sure if the leaning tower was a result of war. Haha. But later he lost to Pope Julius II and Spanish troops and got arrested and imprisoned, tortured but later released. Machiavelli then retired and devoted himself completely to study and writing and finally earned his intellectual place in the world of politics and philosophy.
Machiavelli finally died at the age of 58. His epitaph read: "Tanto Nomini Nullum Par Elogium" which literally translated means: "So great a name has no adequate praise". Truly, it is not easy or perhaps there is no eulogy to appropriately bestowed on a great man. Machiavelli believed that some times you have to be positive and willing to act immorally at the right times even through deceit or brute force. Violence may be a necessary evil and let the ends justify the means.
He believed in ambition and pursuit of glory by controlling things himself rather than let it be fortune or a stroke of good luck. He is not your usual humanist or philosopher. He simply believed that religion is man-made. In the modern day, if you are described as Machiavellian you are some one who would deceive and manipulate and who would take advantage of others. He was therefore, not quite like Socrates, Plato or Aristotle. In fact, Machiavelli can go on the dark side. So be careful because when you are in control or power and do the right things by being shrewd serving the greater good it can still be fine but few people can handle power, maybe none.
He believed in ambition and pursuit of glory by controlling things himself rather than let it be fortune or a stroke of good luck. He is not your usual humanist or philosopher. He simply believed that religion is man-made. In the modern day, if you are described as Machiavellian you are some one who would deceive and manipulate and who would take advantage of others. He was therefore, not quite like Socrates, Plato or Aristotle. In fact, Machiavelli can go on the dark side. So be careful because when you are in control or power and do the right things by being shrewd serving the greater good it can still be fine but few people can handle power, maybe none.
Quotes
Politics have no relation to morals.
It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.
If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.
I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.
He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.
Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.
It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.
Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.
The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.
A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.
Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.
Never was anything great achieved without danger.
It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow.
Severities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offense; benefits ought to be handed ought drop by drop, so that they may be relished the more.
It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.
Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.
The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.
The one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not.
The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.
A son can bear with equanimity the loss of his father, but the loss of his inheritance may drive him to despair.
One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.
Allow me to offer a quote from Abraham Lincoln:
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power".
I know it is not easy to please everyone. Some fellows will ask me why no Asian philosophers? No worries I am no Pinkerton fool. There will be more to come. Just a sample: Confucius said: "If you want pretty nurse you got to be patient".
It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.
If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.
I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.
He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.
Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.
It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.
Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.
The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.
A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.
Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.
Never was anything great achieved without danger.
It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow.
Severities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offense; benefits ought to be handed ought drop by drop, so that they may be relished the more.
It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.
Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.
The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.
The one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not.
The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.
A son can bear with equanimity the loss of his father, but the loss of his inheritance may drive him to despair.
One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.
Allow me to offer a quote from Abraham Lincoln:
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power".
I know it is not easy to please everyone. Some fellows will ask me why no Asian philosophers? No worries I am no Pinkerton fool. There will be more to come. Just a sample: Confucius said: "If you want pretty nurse you got to be patient".
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