The Prince
by Niccolò Machiavelli
The 1513 handbook on acquiring and keeping power: fortune and virtue, whether it is better to be feared or loved, the use of cruelty, the danger of flatterers. It is short, shocking, misquoted constantly, and still the most honest book about power ever written.
Read it if…
you want to understand power as it is practised, not as it is described.
Skip it if…
you want ethics; Machiavelli deliberately brackets them.
Three things you will actually use
- Judge people by results and by their circle.
- Fortune favours the bold, and punishes the unprepared.
- Avoid flatterers by rewarding honest advice.
Do this first
Read chapters fifteen to nineteen first; they contain the famous arguments.
Our verdict
Power, honestly.
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