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Machiavelli's The Prince

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According to Machiavelli, a prince who keeps his promises is generally praised. But history demonstrates that most success is achieved when princes are crafty, tricky and able to deceive others. A prince can fight or succeed by using law or by using force. The use of law comes naturally to men and the use of force comes naturally to beasts. Hence, to achieve success, the prince must learn to fight with a balance between both law and force. He must imbibe the attributes of half man and half beast. By using force, a prince acts like a beast. And he must be like two types of beasts - lions and foxes. A fox’s weakness are wolves. A prince must be like a fox, in the sense, he must learn to fight off wolves. A lion’s weakness are traps and prince,

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