How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Another advantage is that the new territory won't be plundered by your officials. Its subjects will be happy that they can appeal to a ruler who is living among them. So, if they're intending to be obedient, they'll have one more reason to love you, and if they're not, all the more reason to fear you. (3.5)
As Machiavelli will tell us time and time again, it's always best to take things into your own hands. You really don't want to delegate.
Quote #2
A new ruler who reckons he must ward off enemies and woo friends, overcome obstacles by force or fraud, have himself loved and feared by his people, followed and respected by his soldiers, who must eliminate enemies likely or certain to attack him, reform old institutions, show himself both severe and gracious, generous and spontaneous, break up a disloyal army and build a new one, keep the friendship of kings and princes so that they support him with deference, or at least think twice before harming him, will find no better recent example to study than the policies of Cesare Borgia. (7.14)
Whoo wee! If this is what it takes to be a politician, then count us out. We're exhausted just reading it.
Quote #3
Because it's fear or hatred that makes men attack each other. (7.15)
If fear or hatred makes people attack each other, then why is Machiavelli advocating that rulers inspire fear in their people? Does he really think so little of "the people"?
Quote #4
These reflections prompt the question: is it better to be loved rather than feared, or vice versa? The answer is that one would prefer to be both but, since they don't go together easily, if you have to choose, it's much safer to be feared than loved. (17. 5)
Here it is, the part that we all know. But notice that, when people quote this, they never say the first part—that it's best to be both. If you read carefully you'll see that Machiavelli makes a slight concession to what people would normally say (both) before writing what he really feels. And for that matter, why don't love and fear go together easily?
Quote #5
Men are less worried about letting down someone who has made himself loved than someone who makes himself feared. (17.5)
Sometimes Machiavelli contradicts himself a bit, like he does here. Later he says that a ruler can't make himself loved. Well, Niccolò, tell us: can he or can't he?
Quote #6
Love binds when someone recognizes he should be grateful to you, but, since men are a sad lot, gratitude is forgotten the moment it's inconvenient. Fear means fear of punishment, and that's something people never forget. (17.5)
Ain't that the truth? We're going to guess that the number of people that tried to go against Cesare Borgia after he put his own man's head on a stake was pretty close to zero.
Quote #7
All the same, while a ruler can't expect to inspire love when making himself feared, he must avoid arousing hatred. Actually, being feared is perfectly compatible with not being hated. And a ruler won't be hated if he keeps his hands off his subjects' property and their women. (17.6)
This is seems like a no-brainer to us, but remember that a lot of pillaging and ransacking was going on at the time, and it wasn't as funny as they make it look in those Pirates of the Caribbean movies. More Game of Thrones than honorable pirates.
Quote #8
Going back, then, to the question of being feared or loved, my conclusion is that since people decide for themselves whether to love a ruler or not, while it's the ruler who decides whether they're going to fear him, a sensible man will base his power on what he controls, not on what others have freedom to choose. But he must take care, as I said, that people don't come to hate him. (17.9)
Nothing new here. Machiavelli keeps telling us the same stuff over and over. Do you think he's afraid we won't understand it, or is this such radical advice that he feels like he really needs to drive it home?
Quote #9
You'll be held in contempt, on the other hand, if you're seen as changeable, superficial, effeminate, fearful or indecisive. So a ruler must avoid those qualities like so many stumbling blocks. (19.1)
It's interesting that a ruler only wants to inspire fear, not seem fearful. Does the value of fear change based on who is doing the fearing? Also about those bad qualities? Remember that being "effeminate," i.e. like a woman, is one of the worst things you could ever do. Ah, sexism.
Quote #10
The ruler who is more afraid of his people than of foreign enemies must build fortresses; but the ruler who is more afraid of foreign enemies should do without them. (20.9)
Most of the time, Machiavelli doesn't talk about rulers being afraid of anything. So, why would a ruler be afraid of his people? (Maybe a ruler whose people hated him?)