Niccolò Machiavelli

Name: The Prince (Hill Thomson) — Chapter XX: Whether Fortresses, and Certain Other Expedients to Which Princes Often Have Recourse, are Profitable or Hurtful
Author: Niccolò Machiavelli

The Prince (Hill Thomson) — Chapter XX: Whether Fortresses… (1910)

Summary

“The Prince (Hill Thomson) — Chapter XX: Whether Fortresses, and Certain Other Expedients to Which Princes Often Have Recourse, are Profitable or Hurtful”, published in 1910, is a work by Niccolò Machiavelli. It explores elements such as fortresses, hostility and factions.

Quotes from The Prince (Hill Thomson) — Chapter XX: Whether Fortresses… (Niccolò Machiavelli)

Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (Hill Thomson) — Chapter XX: Whether Fortresses… (1910)

“ We may state the case thus: the Prince who is more afraid of his subjects than of strangers ought to build fortresses, while he who is more afraid of strangers than of his subjects, should leave them alone. The citadel built by Francesco Sforza in Milan, has been, and will hereafter prove to be, more dangerous to the House of Sforza than any other disorder of that State. So that, on the whole, the best fortress you can have, is in not being hated by your subjects. If they hate you no fortress will save you; for when once the people take up arms, foreigners are never wanting to assist them. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (Hill Thomson) — Chapter XX: Whether Fortresses… (1910)

“ But by disarming, you at once give offence, since you show your subjects that you distrust them, either as doubting their courage, or as doubting their fidelity, each of which imputations begets hatred against you. Moreover, as you cannot maintain yourself without arms you must have recourse to mercenary troops. What these are I have already shown, but even if they were good, they could never avail to defend you, at once against powerful enemies abroad and against subjects whom you distrust. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (Hill Thomson) — Chapter XX: Whether Fortresses… (1910)

“ It has never chanced that any new Prince has disarmed his subjects. On the contrary, when he has found them unarmed he has always armed them. For the arms thus provided become yours, those whom you suspected grow faithful, while those who were faithful at the first, continue so, and from your subjects become your partisans. And though all your subjects cannot be armed, yet if those of them whom you arm be treated with marked favour, you can deal more securely with the rest. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (Hill Thomson) — Chapter XX: Whether Fortresses… (1910)

“ Doubtless, Princes become great by vanquishing difficulties and opposition, and Fortune, on that account, when she desires to aggrandize a new Prince, who has more need than an hereditary Prince to win reputation, causes enemies to spring up, and urges them on to attack him, to the end that he may have opportunities to overcome them, and make his ascent by the very ladder which they have planted. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (Hill Thomson) — Chapter XX: Whether Fortresses… (1910)

“ For which reason, many are of the opinion that a wise Prince, when he has the occasion, ought dexterously to promote hostility to himself in certain quarters, in order that his greatness may be enhanced by crushing it.
Princes, and new Princes especially, have found greater fidelity and helpfulness in those whom, at the beginning of their reign, they have held in suspicion, than in those who at the outset have enjoyed their confidence ”

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Source: Wikisource

Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (Hill Thomson) — Chapter XX: Whether Fortresses… (1910)

“ For the difference which those whom you supply with arms perceive in their treatment, will bind them to you, while the others will excuse you, recognizing that those who incur greater risk and responsibility merit greater rewards. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (Hill Thomson) — Chapter XX: Whether Fortresses… (1910)

“ This only I will say, that those men who at the beginning of a reign have been hostile, if of a sort requiring support to maintain them, may always be won over by the Prince with much ease, and are the more bound to serve him faithfully because they know that they have to efface by their conduct the unfavourable impression he had formed of them ”

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Source: Wikisource

Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (Hill Thomson) — Chapter XX: Whether Fortresses… (1910)

“ It has been customary for Princes, with a view to hold their dominions more securely, to build fortresses which might serve as a curb and restraint on such as have designs against them, and as a safe refuge against a first onset. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (Hill Thomson) — Chapter XX: Whether Fortresses… (1910)

“ Carefully considering the cause of this, with the aid of examples taken from times ancient and modern, he will perceive that it is far easier to secure the friendship of those who being satisfied with things as they stood, were for that very reason his enemies, than of those who sided with him and aided him in his usurpation only because they were discontented. ”

Niccolò Machiavelli

Summary

Quotes from The Prince (Hill Thomson) — Chapter XX: Whether Fortresses… (Niccolò Machiavelli)

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