The Prince · Chapter
XIX: That One Should Avoid Being Despised and Hated explained
Machiavelli advises the prince to avoid being hated by refraining from rapacity and violating subjects' property and women, and to avoid being despised by showing decisiveness, courage, and gravity.
What happens
Machiavelli advises the prince to avoid being hated by refraining from rapacity and violating subjects' property and women, and to avoid being despised by showing decisiveness, courage, and gravity. He argues that a prince who is esteemed is safe from conspiracies, as conspirators fear the people's hostility. Using Roman emperors as examples, he contrasts those who pleased soldiers versus people, noting that modern princes must satisfy the people more than soldiers, except for the Turk and Sultan. He concludes that new princes should blend Severus's founding strength with Marcus's stability.
Themes in this chapter
Fear vs. Love as a Governing Tool
Machiavelli argues that avoiding hatred and contempt is more crucial than being loved, as popular goodwill prevents conspiracies.
The Importance of Public Perception
The prince must cultivate a reputation for greatness, courage, and gravity to be esteemed and secure against internal and external threats.
Human Nature and Its Exploitation
Conspirators are deterred by the certainty of punishment and the prince's majesty, exploiting the self-interest of malcontents.
The Use of Cruelty and Clemency
Examples of emperors like Severus show that calculated cruelty can maintain power, while excessive cruelty or weakness leads to downfall.
Characters to notice
- Messer Annibale Bentivogli
Prince of Bologna murdered by the Canneschi conspiracy; example of a prince who lost popular support.
- Marcus Aurelius
Emperor who lived and died honored due to hereditary succession and virtues; model for stable rule.
- Pertinax
Emperor overthrown because soldiers hated his honest reforms and despised his old age.
- Severus
Emperor who successfully combined fox and lion natures, kept soldiers loyal despite oppressing people.
- Antoninus Caracalla
Cruel and rapacious emperor who came to a bad end despite satisfying soldiers.
- Commodus
Emperor whose cruelty and rapacity led to his downfall.
- Maximinus
Emperor whose barbarity and low birth caused rebellion and murder by his own army.
- Caesar Alexander
Emperor of great goodness but considered effeminate and despised, leading to conspiracy and murder.
Key passages
“It makes him hated above all things, as I have said, to be rapacious, and to be a violator of the property and women of his subjects, from both of which he must abstain.”
The prince must avoid seizing subjects' property or women, as these actions breed hatred.
Core advice on avoiding hatred through respect for subjects' possessions and honor.
“It makes him contemptible to be considered fickle, frivolous, effeminate, mean-spirited, irresolute, from all of which a prince should guard himself as from a rock.”
A prince must avoid appearing weak or indecisive, as such traits invite contempt.
Emphasizes the need for a strong, resolute public image.
“And one of the most efficacious remedies that a prince can have against conspiracies is not to be hated and despised by the people.”
Popular goodwill is the best defense against plots.
Key principle linking public sentiment to security.
“Therefore a prince, new to the principality, cannot imitate the actions of Marcus, nor, again, is it necessary to follow those of Severus, but he ought to take from Severus those parts which are necessary to found his state, and from Marcus those which are proper and glorious to keep a state that may already be stable and firm.”
A new prince should combine Severus's founding strength with Marcus's stabilizing virtues.
Machiavelli's synthesis of different leadership styles for different phases of rule.
