Widely vilified and secretly admired, Niccolo Machiavelli was born on May 3, 1469 and died on June 21, 1527 in Florence, Italy. He was an Italian statesman and writer based in Florence during the Renaissance. While he authored many books he is probably best known for The Prince, and is perhaps thought of as the “father of modern political theory.” In his book The Prince he attempted to teach the rulers of his time how to obtain power and hold on to it. Machiavelli illustrated many key points in what it took to be a "successful" Prince. During his career he was able to study the science of politics and thought about its fundamental principles. Furthermore, he observed men and his view on humanity was not cheerful. Indeed, the pessimistic notion that humanity is evil is not so much Machiavelli’s conclusion about human nature as his premise for the course a ruler should follow. A prudent ruler…cannot and should not observe faith when such observance is to disadvantage and the causes that made him give his promise have vanished. If men were all good, this advice would not be good, but since men are wicked and do not keep their promises to you, you likewise do not have to keep yours to them. …show more content…
His underlying point was that a ruler should have a certain amount of liberality and stinginess, it was his idea that it was better for a prince to be thought stingy, he explains, than for him to grow poor through lavishness and then be forced to rob his subjects. As well as, when the use of force deemed necessary, he advised the prince to lead a military force consisting of citizens of the domain who will fight for their country, instead of untrustworthy foreign mercenaries. Another aspect was whether or not it is better to be feared than to be