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Generosity And Martin Luther's He

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Generosity is a quality of being forgiving and non-selfish. It is oftentimes associated with being selfless and leads to absolution and forbearance. In addition, it is a trait that requires one to put others before his plans. Both authors believe that generosity and kindness is associated with love, even though Machiavelli believes that excessive generosity should be avoided. He even notes that being generous for its sake harms a person’s reputation and costs one all their political capital. Luther, on the other hand, did not feel that his generosity should have any ulterior motives. For example, he helped others without expecting anything in return, despite of his financial hardships. Through Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince and Martin Luther’s …show more content…

He is also saying that people should get recognition for doing good deeds. He also continues and advises politicians to give people many promises during the campaign trail, but also says when one reaches power, such generosity needs to stop. “Either you are already a prince, or you are on the way to becoming one. In the first case, your generosity will be to your cost; in the second, it is certainly necessary to have a reputation for generosity.” (The Prince, 52) So, in Machiavelli’s point of view, as a politician, the purpose and intentions of one’s generosity is solely to get to their desired position, in this case the prince. The politicians will say numerous things they will do when they become a prince; however, once they actually become one, they no longer feel obliged to keep their promises, and most of the promises they made were merely to get the votes. This results in only a small fraction of the promises being kept, and these kinds of politicians are not so hard to find even in today’s

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