Thus it is well to seem pious, faithful,
humane, religious, sincere, and also to be so; but you must have the
mind so watchful that when it is needful to be otherwise you may be
able to change to the opposite qualities. And it must be understood
that a prince, and especially a new prince, cannot observe all those
things which are considered good in men, being often obliged, in order
to maintain the state, to act against faith, against charity, against
humanity, and against religion. And, therefore, he must have a mind
disposed to adapt itself according to the wind, and as the variations
of fortune dictate, and, as I said before, not deviate from what is
good, if possible, but be able to do evil if necessitated. A prince
must take great care that nothing goes out of his mouth which is not
full of the above-named five qualities, and, to see and hear him, he
should seem to be all faith, all integrity, all humanity, and all
religion. And nothing is more necessary than to seem to have this last
quality, for men in general judge more by the eyes than by the hands,
for every one can see, but very few have to feel. Everybody sees what
you appear to be, few feel what you are, and those few will not dare
to oppose themselves to the many, who have the majesty of the state to
defend them; and in the actions of men, and especially of princes, from
which there is no appeal, the end is everything.
Let a prince therefore aim at living and maintaining state the state,
the means will always be judged honourable and praised by every one,
for the vulgar is always taken by appearances and the result of things;
and the world consists only of the vulgar, and the few find a place
when the many have nothing to rest upon. A certain prince of the
present time, whom it is well not to name, never does anything but
preach peace and good faith, but he is really a great enemy to both,
and either of them, had he observed them, would have lost him both
state and reputation on many occasions.
CHAPTER XIX
THAT WE MUST AVOID BEING DESPISED AND HATED
But as I have now spoken of the most important of the qualities
in question, I will now deal briefly with the rest on the general
principle, that the prince must, as already stated, avoid those things
which will make him hated or despised; and whenever he succeeds in
this, he will have done his part, and will find no danger in other
vices.