Pagina 134 de 310

Every one admits how praiseworthy it is in a prince to keep

faith, and to live with integrity and not with craft.

Nevertheless our experience has been that those princes who have

done great things have held good faith of little account, and

have known how to circumvent the intellect of men by craft, and

in the end have overcome those who have relied on their word. You

must know there are two ways of contesting,[2] the one by the

law, the other by force; the first method is proper to men, the

second to beasts; but because the first is frequently not

sufficient, it is necessary to have recourse to the second.

Therefore it is necessary for a prince to understand how to avail

himself of the beast and the man.