Who is Machiavelli

1. Niccolò Machiavelli was a political philosopher, but he was also a poet, a musician and a screen write. He lived in the Renaissance time in Italy, born in Florence in 1469 and grew up in a politically confusing time. When he was 25 he entered into the world of politics himself by becoming a clerk, In the same year, 1494 he got a spot on the council that delt with diplomatic and military matters. His work brought him to the royal courts of France and Aragon and to the Pope's seat in Rome. Cesare Borgia, on whom Machiavelli is believed to have partially based The Prince, came to power in 1502. Machiavelli died on 21 June 1527, but had written the Prince in 1513, but published posthumously in 1532 five years after his death. Machiavelli wrote the book The Prince to show people what a leader needs to do to gain and maintain political power while being attacked by other foreign powers.

2. "The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him." I believe that this quote from Machiavelli's The  Prince has the most relevance to leadership today. If you think about it humans naturally look at a person and see what they are like by the people they hang out with. Many people will hang out with others who have similar interest as them and even if their intelligence is not the same they will probably have a close intelligence level. Take the stereotypical example of jocks, not so bright, but very athletic. If they all hang out together and you want to figure out what one of them is like, all you do is look at the people they hang out with. People's nature usually leads them to finding things out about others in an indirect way. So they go around and talk to the people who hang out with the person that they are assessing and gain information about them that way. This is the way Machiavelli would suggest learning information about a person because it does not arise suspicion and you learn valuable information on that person.

3. "The ends justify the means."- The Prince by Machiavelli. Today this advice would be frowned upon by our culture today. We are widely based around the well being of others when it comes to leading them in almost anything. The reason for this is because we are taught a a young age that team work is good and that always working by yourself won't work. Even though we do tend to watch out for ourselves we also end up watching out for others in the process to get ourselves ahead. When he says the end justifies the mean this could mean several different things, such as lying to others, wiping out a culture, or stealing. Many would say this advice is bad or that they don't like it because it could end up leading people in the wrong direction.


4. "A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise." I believe that this would have been a good quote for the Pizarro to know because it would help him to know what he could do against the Inca's. Because the Inca's seemed to already know how to be deceitful and cunning. If Pizarro had been more cunning and on top of his game he may not have needed to kill all the Incas. He eventionaly used his tatical skills and smarts to defeat the Incas, but if he had know the quote from the start he would not have needed to fight.

http://www.ctbw.com/lubman.htm