Niccolò Machiavelli's 1532 Italian treatise on political power examines how rulers acquire and maintain authority through both virtuous and ruthless means. This influential work of political philosophy, translated by W. K. Marriott, offers pragmatic advice that shaped modern statecraft and political thought.
All states, all powers, that have held and hold rule over men have been and are either republics or principalities. Principalities are either hereditary, in which the family has been long established; or they are new. The new are either entirely new, as was Milan to Francesco Sforza, or they are, as it were, members annexed to the hereditary state of the prince who has acquired them, as was the kingdom of Naples to that of the King of Spain.Continue reading →
This is the W. K. Marriott translation (1908), a public-domain English text. Marginalia presents it unabridged, with chapter navigation, your reading position saved, and optional AI commentary on any passage.
A Renaissance Italian diplomat and political theorist (1469-1527) who revolutionized thinking about power and governance. His masterwork The Prince introduced the controversial idea that effective rulers must sometimes act immorally for the greater good, coining the phrase "the end justifies the means" and forever changing political philosophy. All works by Niccolò Machiavelli →
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