Pagina 138 de 310

Therefore it is unnecessary for a prince to have all the good

qualities I have enumerated, but it is very necessary to appear

to have them. And I shall dare to say this also, that to have

them and always to observe them is injurious, and that to appear

to have them is useful; to appear merciful, faithful, humane,

religious, upright, and to be so, but with a mind so framed that

should you require not to be so, you may be able and know how to

change to the opposite.

And you have to understand this, that a prince, especially a new

one, cannot observe all those things for which men are esteemed,

being often forced, in order to maintain the state, to act

contrary to fidelity,[4] friendship, humanity, and religion.

Therefore it is necessary for him to have a mind ready to turn

itself accordingly as the winds and variations of fortune force

it, yet, as I have said above, not to diverge from the good if he

can avoid doing so, but, if compelled, then to know how to set

about it.