Question 1

What is the best book to start with?

Accepted Answer

The Prince, chapters 15 to 18 and chapter 25, then the opening of the Discourses Those Prince chapters contain the calculations people already quote. The Discourses stop the calculations being mistaken for his whole mind.

Question 2

What is the most famous quote?

Accepted Answer

This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for Niccolò Machiavelli that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “It is much safer to be feared than loved, if one cannot be both.” (The Prince, chapter 17, Paraphrase or translation).

Question 3

What is the most misquoted line?

Accepted Answer

The library marks this as Misattributed: “The ends justify the means.” Machiavelli never wrote this sentence. The Prince does discuss cases in which a ruler's cruel means are judged by the stability they produce, especially in chapter 18. That is an argument a reader can reject. It is not this slogan, which has no limits and no author.

Question 4

What is one key idea, in a sentence?

Accepted Answer

Fear and love: If a prince cannot be both feared and loved, fear is safer, and hatred is still to be avoided.