An open library of thought
See politics as it is, not as it is imagined.
Virtù is the energy, foresight and adaptability by which a person shapes events; fortuna is the changing power of circumstance that no one fully controls. Machiavelli asks how much of political success depends on each.
A ruler who builds dikes in calm weather limits the damage when the river of fortune floods.
Political thought should start from the actual consequences of actions and from how people really behave, not from imagined republics or ideal portraits of virtuous rulers.
An advisor judges a policy by what it will actually produce, not by how admirable it sounds.
Every city contains two humours: the great desire to dominate and the people desire not to be dominated. Well-ordered conflict between them can produce laws that protect liberty.
Disputes between the Roman plebs and senate led to the creation of the tribunes of the plebs.
A state that depends on mercenaries or auxiliaries depends on the loyalty of others; security requires forces composed of its own citizens or subjects and bound to its institutions.
Florence raised a militia from its own territory instead of hiring condottieri.